


The Woes of Old Man Kirkland's Apprentice

by Chameleon_Incognito



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 23:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3587268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chameleon_Incognito/pseuds/Chameleon_Incognito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred F. Jones is an average boy who happens to think all supernatural beings are out to get him. That's all well and good, until he is forced to become the apprentice of the crankiest, rudest, and most British man in town who just so happens to deal with supernatural beings for a living. Thus begins Alfred's living nightmare. 18th century AU. (Also on FanFiction)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NO USUK. Sorry guys, I know there are a lot of you USUK shippers out there (I am one myself) but the parring just doesn't work for this story. No worries, there will be other slash parings! I hope you understand.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or the Spook's Apprentice. I am using the characters from Hetalia and ideas from The Spook's Apprentice.
> 
> FYI: This is also on FanFiction.net. I wanted to see what kind of response it would get here.

If someone asked me to pinpoint when I first realized I could see and hear things other people can't, I wouldn't be able to tell you. It might've been in the school house when I saw a cat run across the room and through a wall that no one else happened to see. It might have been the time when I saw a man weeping out in the fields of my families' farm whom my father took no notice to. I don't know when it was; I just remember it being. My Ma was the only other person that I knew of who could see and hear everything I could.

When I complained about the screaming keeping me up at night, she would stop it for me. (I never knew how she shut them up exactly, just that I was incredibly grateful she did).

Whenever I complained about there being constant knocking on my window, she would tell me never to open it no matter how temping the urge to open the window became. (Which really freaked me out).

Nothing had ever seemed odd to me; it was just my daily life. I knew my Pa and older siblings always thought me strange, but my mother always told me never to pay any mind to them, so I didn't. I learned to do my chores and go to school while doing my absolute best to ignore all the bizarre happenings around me.

This system of mine worked out pretty well until I was about nine years old; that's when I learned about ghosts.

I was walking back inside the school house after our free time outside, when I happened to overhear an older boy, John, talking to a girl my age. Her name was Tori Laurinaitis. Her family had recently immigrated to the Americas from Lithuania and I found myself to be absolutely smitten with her. She was extremely cute, with soft, wavy brown hair she wore in a cute pony tail, and big, bright blue eyes. Her sweet, innocent smile made my heart skip a few beats, while her accent always sounded like soothing music to me. Of course, I didn't like her talking to other boys without myself (even though I was simply a friend), so I walked over to the two and proceeded to join the conversation. When John mentioned the word, "ghost", I was caught off guard and asked him what that was.

With raised eyebrows John proclaimed, "You don't know what a ghost is, kid? A ghost is a spirit of the dead whose sole purpose is revenge on the living for makin' their live so stinkin' hard." He looked around us with suspicious, squinted eyes, as if to make sure no one was listening on our conversation. He leaned down towards me and said, "If you can see 'em, that means that they're out to get you."

Tori narrowed her eyes, put her hands on her hips, and told John there was no such thing as ghosts, and that he should be ashamed for trying to trick us. On the outside I agreed with her, but on the inside I was absolutely terrified. I realized that ghosts did, in fact, exist, and that I saw them every day of my life. Ghosts were the one's moaning all night long. Ghosts were the one's who knocked on my window, trying to make me open it for them. Ghosts were the one's sitting out in the corn fields, crying. Ghosts were the one's trying to kill me.

From that day forward, I lived my life in utter terror, as pathetic as that sounds. I knew John was only trying to scare me at the time, but I couldn't help but notice everything he said make startling sense. From that fear, a mild obsession grew.

I began researching ways to ward off ghosts. I would make a habit of sprinkling salt around the farm, around the school house, and anywhere else I went frequently. I began spending the free time I had to casting "spells" that would ward off spirits of any kind. (They didn't work very well; I still heard the knocking at my window and the distant screaming and moaning).

Of course I still had my friends (I wasn't that paranoid) but I never went to any social gatherings in fear of seeing the beings I feared most in a place that I had not yet attempted to ghost-proof yet. As a result, I became more reserved.

Time passed, people died, people were born, and before I knew it, it was time that I had to get an apprenticeship. Being the youngest of four, all my other siblings had already left for their apprenticeships beside my eldest brother, Holden, who would inherit the farm. Of course, going away from home instilled fear inside me; I didn't know if the place would be infested with ghosts or not. If my master's house was infested with ghosts, I wouldn't have my Ma to scare them away for me. (I know that sounds stupid, but you'd go running if you saw Ma get angry as well).

When the dreaded topic finally came up, Ma told us that she already arranged an apprenticeship for me.

"Isn't that supposed to be my choice to make, Ma?" I asked. And it was my choice to make. I didn't want to be stuck with a lousy boss that I absolutely despised just because I was afraid to speak up to my mother. That was ridiculous!

"It is," she replied, "but I know you'll just love this one."

"Well, what is it?" asked Pa. That caught me by surprise; I would think that if Ma already decided on my apprenticeship, she would have discussed it with Pa.

"Alfred here is going to start working for Mr. Kirkland."

My heart literally stopped beating. "W-what?" I squeaked.

"I said that you will start an apprenticeship for Arthur Kirkland. Next week, to be precise."

No. No no no no no no no. She could not do that to me. I would never ever become a spook's apprentice. Spooks are involved in all sorts of wacky things; wacky supernatural things. Ghosts happen to belong to the supernatural category, so no way in hell was I going near Kirkland or his funky business.

"You want to apprentice him to a spook?" Holden asked in dismay. "What evil power has possessed you to do such a thing like that?"

"Witch craft," mumbled Pa, "it's going around these days."

Pa was only joking, but his comment still got me thinking; Ma always was able to stop the ghosts. Was she some sort of witch? In that case was I some sort of witch, because I was able to see the spirits of the beyond?!

Holden, Pa, and I shared a paranoid look. Ma simply rolled her eyes as the three of us."Crimes of 'witch craft' are nothing more than a load of blether. They're all about jealous woman making up some sodding stories about other women for whatever reason. I don't wish to partake in that ridiculous affair."

"Sounds pretty suspicious," said Holden, "almost like it's something a witch would say, don't you think so, Al?"

"Indeed I do, Hol."

"I told you not to call me that."

"Why can't I? You call me Al."

"That's because 'Al' is a good nickname. 'Hol' is a stupid nickname."

"It's fitting then; a stupid nickname for a stupid person."

"At least I don't have to be an apprentice for Ol' Man England."

"Shut up, you stupid Hol! At lest I don't have to tug on cow ditties and roll in fresh baked pig pies for the rest of my life! Pulling Maribel's utters are the closest thing you'll ever get to experiencing what it's like to be with a woman."

"Like Tori's ever gonna want to be with a spook."

My face flushed a violent shade of red at the mention of my long time crush. "No one ever said I was going to be a spook. I don't want to be the next Ol' Man England."

"Both of you, knock it off!" snapped my mother. "And what is with calling Mr. Kirkland 'Ol' Man England'? That is very rude, and he isn't old." The single flaw about my Ma (okay, not "single" flaw) was the fact that she was from Great Britain herself. It horrified us all (especially since she had the same accent as Ol' Man England), but we somehow learned to put up with it.

"Well he certainly acts like one, always snapping at people in the high, snooty Brit talk. You'd think that he still wants England to sail over hear and reclaim America!"

"Alfred!" she scolded, "you better practice saying only good thinks about Mr. Kirkland, seeing as you'll be his apprentice soon."

I snapped. "I will not be a spook's apprentice! Especially not one to Ol' Man England! He's so crabby, rude, has a dumb way of talking, no offense Ma, and aside from just him, he's a spook! No one knows what spooks do, accept be creepy and stalk grave yards. Grave Yards, which are just crawling with ghosts and the super natural. I don't want to do that. You can't make me do that!"

All she did was raise one eyebrow at my little rant. "Mr. Kirkland is not a bad person, and being a spook is a respectable business. You will be his apprentice, and you will do what I tell you. You are not allowed to apply to any other apprenticeship until you at least try for two months. If it really is that awful than I will allow you to look for a new apprenticeship. Now go to your room. I don't want to hear another word on the matter."

It was unbelievable. Why Ol' Man England, of all people? Did she want to ruin my life? I'd never actually talked to him, but I have seen him sulking around, and have heard him yelling at others. His English accent was unmistakable; he was a true Brit, alright. The problem wasn't that he was a Brit exactly; it was more of him being an unpleasant person with and unpleasant job. I still didn't see why I had to be his apprentice. There were plenty of other boys my age who were weird and into that dark supernatural stuff—boys that weren't me.

I stayed up late at night, hiding under my blanket and listening to the rap tat tats on my window. After 14 years, you would think I was used to it, but I was still terrified of what that sound could be. There wasn't any moaning or screaming that night; Ma probably felt bad for making me have such an undesirable apprenticeship, and stopped them early. I sighed to myself, and tried to fall asleep.

I just wanted it to stop. It was constantly there, nailing a pounding "Tap tap tap" into my skull. With courage I didn't know I had, I leaped out of my bed and marched to the window. With shaking hands, I pulled the window open and was instantly knocked down by a gust of wind caused by the ghosts that were currently flying all around my room. Well, I thought, at least I now know what was causing the tapping sounds. I wish I left the window shut.

It was only then I remembered Ma's warning; "Don't ever open that window, you hear me?"

I tried to scream, but the ghosts came down and grabbed me, covering my mouth in the process. Their hands felt like cold shards of ice jabbing into my skin. The wind was swirling like there was a storm in my room. I was scared out of my mind and wondered why no one was hearing the commotion and running to my room.

The ghosts began to bring me towards the window. I closed my eyes anticipating my death, but they were pried open by the deathly cold hands' of the spirits. No! I silently screamed, I don't want to see my own death! Have mercy! I'm too young to die! But they weren't throwing me out the window. I looked at the one to my left as if to say, "What's the hold up?" He shrugged in response, and gestured for me to look out the window.

There, rising up from the ground and to my eye level (my room was on the second story of our house) was Ol' Man England in all his bushy-eyebrow glory. He fixed me with a patronization glare using his cat-like green eyes that just so happened to be the exact same shade as my own[1], climbed through the window, and fell to the floor with a subtle thud that reminded me of the way the morning dew fell to the ground. Both actions were done in such a silent and purposeful way.

"Bring him closer," Ol' Man England said to the spirits. The ghosts brought me right in front of his face; so close our noses were touching. I'm going to soil myself, I thought miserably. "Not that close, you bloody cretins." They moved me across the room. "Well, now that's quite too far away. You know what, just stay there, and I will come towards you until I stop in the amount of distance I want between the boy and myself." He walked towards me until there was about foot's distance between us. "That's much better." His British accent was absolutely revolting. The very sound of his voice made me feel more frightened than waking up and knowing it was Ma's time of the month.

Finally, the spirits uncovered my mouth allowing me to stutter out, "Wha-wha-wha-what d-do you want w-with me Ol'—I mean, Sir?"

"I need to tell you something very important, so you better listen well." He got so close to me I could feel his vile breath brush against my face with every exhale. "Alfred, I am your father."

I woke up with a start, and fell out of my bead. My heard was beating fast, and I could hear the blood roaring in my ears. I looked at the window to see it firmly shut and the sun rising behind the hills in the distance.

"It was just a dream," I whispered to myself. "Holden was right. I really should stop listening to those stupid 'Farm Wars' stories Matthew makes up."

There was a thud against the window. I must've jumped two feet in the air before I dove back under the blankets on my bed. It turned out to be just a bird who accidentally flew into the window. Sighing, I thought that I was in for a very long day.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alfred, get up! You need to feed the pigs!"

Geez, the sun had just risen, yet she was already nagging me to do the morning chores? "I'm coming, Ma!" I yelled back. She's the one that wants me to do a stupid apprenticeship for a man I don't even like. She should start doing my chores herself, to get used to my absence. 

That just reminded me; it was the day I would begin my position as the apprentice for Ol' Man England.

As quick as I could, I got dressed and ran outside before the woman could scream at me again. "First thing's first! Why, Mary-loo! You're looking mighty fine today! Did you do something with your hair?" She starred at me with a glazed over look in her eyes. "I'll take that as a yes." She was, after all, a donkey and therefore could not speak English. It took someone as talented as I was in interpreting the language of animals to speak on their behalf.

I went through the usual motions of my morning routine: milk the cow, collect eggs from the hens, shovel manure of all manure producing mammals we owned, water the crops, churn the butter (only on Sundays), and feed all of the animals. (Excluding the family dog, Maple, and Holden; Ma feeds them). However, I took twice as long to complete everything then I usually did. It was probably because I thought if I prolonged all of my duties (yes, I said "duties". Grow up, you preschoolers) then I prolonged the time before I had to leave home with Ol' Man England.

Sighing at my misfortune, I walked inside the house only to be faced with Matthew, my older brother. Matthew wasn't older by much; a year and three days, to be precise. Even through we weren't twins, everyone thought we were.

Instantly, I was out of my depressed stupor. "Mattie!" I tackled my brother in a giant hug and exclaimed how much I had missed him.

"Alfred, we saw each other last week!" Matthew always had a very soft way of talking. He was not very forward, and was always very quiet and reserved. This often caused people to look over him easily. Sometimes this fact upset Matthew, but I could easily cheer him up by saying that he would make an awesome spy.

"Yeah, but that feels like a lifetime ago. And besides; I might not see you for a while after this, so I better make it count."

Understanding dawned of his face. Matthew knew about my impending servitude to Ol' Man England and was the one who showed me the most sympathy without pissing me off. Pa was too afraid to talk back to Ma, and Holden often gave me pitting looks, but other than that, the only thing he did was yell at me that I was "tugging to harshly on Maribel's utters". I tell you, he was going to make a wife of that cow yet. That is, if Maribel really had that low of standards. "We better get breakfast before Ma starts howling again."

When we walked in the kitchen we were greeted by the sight of Ma setting the table. Briefly, I wondered who would take on the chores I would leave behind for the next two months. It couldn't be Ma; she already did all the housework. Pa was always taking care of business and showing Holden the ropes. Maybe they'll hire a stable hand. As soon as I thought of it, I knew they wouldn't do that. There simply wasn't enough money.

"Well, are you two boys just going to stand there, or are you going to eat?"

Matthew and I shared a glance before we hightailed it to the dinning table. Breakfast was much nicer than usual including omelets, bacon, fresh orange juice, hash browns, oat meal, etc. It was, to say the least, much more appetizing than the usual grits we got served. It was probably because Ma was trying to get on my good side despite sending me off to my death. Well it worked, I thought as I began to dig in.

Ma slapped my hand, scolding me to wait for Holden. It almost worked. 

"That reminds me!" said Matthew. "I have made up another installment of my hit drama, Farm Wars!" I almost asked him to tell us, but then I remembered my dream a few nights before. It didn't matter if I asked for him to continue of not; he just started talking again. "So I think we left off where Farmer Vader just told Luke Fieldwalker he was his father, which was a huge shock because of the recent battle of the corn crops."

"Mattie, you still telling that Farm Wars nonsense?"

"Hol! Am I glad to see you! Now we can eat!" I continued piling up my plate with sausages and bacon.

"You better hurry up," commented Pa, "Mr. Kirkland will be coming to pick you up in not too long."

Holden held up his hands and backed away, "Whoa, whoa, whoa; I didn't know Ol' Man England was coming here."

Ma smacked him of the back of his head with a wooden spoon. "I told you boys to stop referring to Mr. Kirkland in such a disrespectful manner. For goodness sake, he's only twenty-six! Much younger than your Pa and me!"

"Then he shouldn't act like such an old man if he isn't one, eh?" Matthew whispered. Per usual, no one paid him any mind.

Since Ol' Man England would only at the house in a little while, I shoveled down my food (with more than a few complaints from Matthew and Holden about how disgusting that looked), grabbed Matthew's arm, and dragged him upstairs into my room.

"H-hey, Alfred, I wasn't done-"

"We have to talk," I said, slamming the door behind me. I gave him my best serious look;green eyes to violet one's. "And I don't know when the next time I'll see you is, so we better make it good."

"Why is Ma making you work for the spook?" He wasn't addressing Ol' Man England, but his position.

I rubbed my face and sank to the floor. "I-I don't know. I've asked her, but all she'll tell me is that 'It's a perfectly respectable business that you should learn to appreciate'. I'm pretty nervous too. I don't want to work for Ol' Man- I mean, Mr. Kirkland. It's going to be 'bloody awful', as he would put it." I looked up at Matthew with a sly expression. "Enough about me now, what about you, Mattie? What has it been like apprenticed to the the town's book keeper?"

Matthew narrowed his eyes at me. "Good, I guess. It's, of course, not very glamorous, but it's getting more...interesting, I guess you could say."

Now that sounded suspicious. "How so?"

Matthew nervously sat down to be eye-level with me. "Y-you, you can't tell a soul, got it?"

"You have my word." And it was true; Matthew and I shared everything with each other and I would never betray that trust.

He glanced around one last time. "Book keeping isn't all that Mr. Wang does. Now that he trusts me enough, he finally told me what I'll be expected to do when I'm the age to take over his position. He, well, he keeps a file of everyone in the town; birth records, immigration records, criminal acts, job professions, you name it. He has all the information of everyone who has lived here the past 50 years. He keeps them all up to date; that's the book keeper's real job."

My eyes widened in astonishment. "Seriously? That is so spectacular! You certainly wouldn't expect something like that from a job called 'book keeper', would you?"

"I mean it, Al, you really can't tell anyone. Do you know how much trouble I'd be in?"

"Don't sweat it, my lips are sealed! But if he really has all the files on everyone in the town, do you think that he would...?" I trailed off, hoping Matthew caught what I was insinuating.

"What're you—" his eyes widened in understanding. "Yeah, most likely, eh. But what about it? I mean, it's not like we can exactly go in there and take Ol' Man Kirkland's file—" he stopped talking when he saw the expression on my face. "No."

"Oh, come on—"

"No."

"Matthew, please?"

"No!"

"Just one little—"

"I said no, Alfred, and I mean no! Do you even know what would happen to me—happen to us—if we were actually stupid enough to sneak into Mr. Wang's underground cellar to view restricted materials that no one beside Mr. Wang and myself are supposed to know about, let alone access?!"

"Nothing, if we're smart about it and don't get caught. Haven't you ever wondered about Ol' Man England? Especially since I'm going to work for him now, and neither of us know a thing about him."

Sighing, Matthew replied, "If you want to know more about Mr. Kirkland than you should ask him yourself, not do something illegal. That's all I'm saying on that matter."

"You're no fun," I pouted.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Have you even packed yet?"

I crossed over to my bed, and pulled out a sac from underneath it. Rummaging through it, I pulled out a few spare changes of cloths, a spare pare of shoes, and a lot of salt. "He told Ma to tell me to pack light, so I thought that this would be enough."

"That certainly is light, but what's the salt fo—oh, never mind, I remember you fetish with ghosts." He frowned at me, then crossed the room to put a hand on my shoulder. "Alfred, don't you think you're a little old to still believe in ghosts?"

That was right. Matthew and I shared everything with each other, but as we aged, he stopped believing me when I told him about seeing ghosts and other peculiar mishaps. He always told me it was all in my head, and that there were no such thing as ghosts. One day, I realized that no matter how close Matthew and I were, there was always that glaring fact that separated us from each other; I had green eyes [1], and he had blue ones. Other than that, we looked exactly the same. We also became estranged because I could see spirits (they were out to get me), but that wasn't as important.

There was a sudden knocking on my door before I heard Holden's voice say, "Alfred, Ol' Man—I mean, Mr. Kirkland is here for you."

Matthew shot me a sympathetic glace as I threw everything back into my bag and began my trek towards sudden doom.

"Next time we see each other, I'll tell you about my of my new stories I've been working on; I think I'll call this one 'Sea Trek'. It's about how these brave nomads sail the ocean blue to chart and record the new places they find. There's the Captain Kirk, and his first in command, Spock, who's actually the last of the mer-folk race from the lost city of Atlantis. How does that sound, eh?"

I gave Matthew one of my brightest smiles and told him it sounded spectacular. And it really did; anything sounded better than going to live with Ol' Man England for two months as a spook's apprentice.

When I got to the base of the stairs, I saw him talking with my mother. He looked the same as he did in my dream that first night I found I was going to be apprenticed to him; messy blonde hair, big bushy eyebrows, startling green eyes, and adorned in a heavy black cloak with matching boots. Do I really have to work for this nut-job for two whole months? I thought. Doesn't my mother care about my well-being? I bet his place is just crawling with all sorts of weird and bizarre black magic items and awful ghosts...

"There you are Alfred," said Ma, turning to face me. "What ever took you so long?"

"I was just, uh, checking that I had everything I needed." For the first time, I noticed that she had the same exact shade of green for her eye color as Ol' Man England and I had.

"Hello Alfred, I don't reckon we have been properly introduced." I looked up to see the Ol' Man himself looking directly at me. "My name is Arthur Kirkland, as you know. It is a pleasure to be acquainted with you." He held out his hand and I hesitantly took it.

"Alfred F. Jones, but you already knew that." Now that I was seeing him up close, he didn't resemble an old man in the slightest. He was very young; only a few years older than Holden. Not nearly old enough to be my father, let alone my grandpa.

I would like to say there was a huge goodbye party for me, with lots of pastries and other delectable eatable items (like bacon!), that my mom cried while I was leaving before stopping us and deciding that she wanted me to stay home and not be an apprentice to Ol' Man England for two months. Sadly that did not happen. There was no party (or bacon) or any long-lasting good-byes. Ma was swift about it like she was about everything; she told me to try to keep and open mind and sent me on my way.

As I followed Ol' Man England (I really shouldn't call him that, seeing how he isn't really old) to his home, I wondered what kind of creepy and horrid things I'd see when I arrived there. Good thing I remembered plenty of salt, I thought to myself. I'll most definitely need it.

We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. After what seemed like a billion years to me, I opened my mouth and said, "If it was going to take this long, why didn't we take horses?"

"Stop with the complaining, you've only been on your feet for fifteen minutes." That's a long time to be walking! "You better get used to walking greater distances. This is nothing; we're nearly there, anyways."

Finally, Mr. Kirkland uttered the sweet, juicy words, "We're here." I immediately began to dread what the horrid monstrosity that the spook would call "home". Then I looked up and all fear and terror was replaced by pure awe and adoration.

"This is where you live?" I asked in disbelief. "It's like...spectacular." And it was. The "house" was more like a mansion, with three different stories, looking very grand and built like a fortress. The best part was the front yard; there was a beautiful garden filled with flowers that came in more colors than I could name.

I followed Mr. Kirkland through the front gate, and passed through the garden on a stone path that lead to the front door. The whole way there, I was awestruck and gaping like a fish without water. On the front door there was a big, silver door knocker of a lion's head. It was slightly condescending, but not even that could damper the wonderful mood the flowers' cast.

For the first time since he introduced himself to me, Mr. Kirkland looked back at me with a scowl that I could already tell was ever-present. "Would you mind turning around?"

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions you insolent boy, do as your told."

All of the sudden, I remembered why he was referred to as Ol' Man England. With a scowl that mirrored Ol' Man England's, I turned around and crossed my arms impatiently. There was a series of different sounds; mainly the sound of the opening of a bazillion different locks, but there were other sounds integrated in there that made me curious as to what exactly he was doing other than unlocking the door.

This is ridiculous, I though, why would someone have this many locks for one door?

"You may turn around now."

I peaked over my shoulder to see Ol' Man Kirkland still scowling at me. With resignation, I accepted that all I'd ever see on his face would be a scowl.

"Are you just going to stand there like a moron, or are you going to walk inside?"

Much to my chagrin, I walked inside the dark mansion. It may have seemed like a wonderland on the outside, but it was clearly just as foreboding as I pictured it to be on the inside. There wasn't any hint of untidiness of uncleanliness that I had originally anticipated, but there were low lit candles casting a gloom over the place, and no ounce of cheer at all. I felt like I was in one of those horror stories always told at the school house during all hollows eve.

Before I could get any further than two steps, Ol' Man Kirkland stopped me. "You're shoes, if you don't mind."

I looked at him with a perplexed expression. "What about them?"

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. "Your mum wasn't kidding when she said you were thick, now was she? I mean for you to take them off. I don't fancy you tracking mud and dirt all through this house."

That was mean of Ma to say; I knew sometimes I didn't get things like jokes immediately, but I wasn't stupid, or anything. "So, where will I be staying?"

Ol' Man England replied with a dismissing, "I'll tell you when you need to know. Right now we are going to do some gardening." Seeing the looked on my face, he rolled his eyes at me. "You are a real lazy one, you know that? How do you think I get the garden looking so nice, by staring at it? No, certainly not."

"What about after that?"

"Will you stop it with your meaningless questions, already? I don't even recall giving you permission to speak."

Ignoring that, "I thought I was supposed to be a spook's apprentice, not a gardener's one."

Ol' Man England picked up a long, thin piece of wood nearby and asked me for my hand. When I inquired as to why, he picked it up himself, and gave my palm a good, hard SMACK.

"You are my apprentice, and you shall do what I tell you. I expect not to hear any more back talking from you from here on out. Am I clear?" I nodded. "I said, am I clear?"

"Yes sir."

"I'm glad we have an understanding. All right, first thing is first; I'll brew some tea while you start looking at the proper materials you'll need for this kind of gardening."

This was going to be a long two months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Gardening was horrible. The entire time, the old man was hollering to "not be so rough, I might damage the root base" or "what am I, a weakling? Put some elbow grease in it!" We must've been out there for hours before Ol' Man England finally said, "I think that's enough for today," and went back inside.

The sun was already setting behind the hills, casting an surreal glow over the entire garden. It really was quite beautiful, despite how much of a pain it was to keep up. I turned to follow the old man inside the house when I saw a small, bright light fly across the flower beds out of the corner of my eye. I looked back again to confirm if I had really saw that light or not, but it wasn't there anymore. I rubbed my eyes, and blamed it on mid-sun madness. [1]

The old man told me to wait patiently (and not to touch anything) while he prepared our dinner. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited. Food had been the only thing on my mind since I finished breakfast (He said since I had such a big breakfast I wouldn't require lunch. What a bunch of bull crap.) and I was practically starving. I figured that since the old man was so uptight, he would be a good cook. (Don't ask me to try to explain this logic. I just assumed that all uptight people were good cooks). I was wrong. So, so, so tragically wrong. So wrong that I was ashamed of existing because I thought that anyone who was this wrong didn't deserve to walk the earth.

He fixed up this weird type of mush that was worse than grits. Well, food is food, I thought, and ate it. I just hoped I wouldn't be sick in the morning.

After I finished eating (if you could call shoving something uneatable down your throat eating) I asked the old man, "So, where exactly will I be sleeping tonight?"

Mr. Kirkland looked at me with an amused expression. I began to fear for my life. "Oh, you won't be sleeping tonight." I could already feel those cold hands gripping me, dragging me down into the darkness... "After all, you are a spook's apprentice, and therefore do what a spook's apprentice does." He got a big grin on his face that gave me goosebumps.

"W-what do you mean?" I laughed nervously.

"I will show you what I mean."

He look an oil lantern from nearby, and lead me across the mansion to a small, dark room. It was bare, save a few cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. In the middle of the dull room, there was a wooden hatch on the ground. Mr. Kirkland knelt down on the ground, wrapped his pasty-pale hand around the iron handle, and lifted it open. A large gust of cool air blew into my face as I looked at the unstable wooden stairs that descended into darkness. Immediately, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. All of my instincts were telling my to hightail it out of that room and run all the way home. I just knew something bad was down there. I just knew.

"Are you even listening to me?"

I looked to the old man's scowling face and realized he had been talking to me. "Uh, sorry, what did you say?"

He huffed impatiently, "Why do you have to be such an insolent child? Never mind that now. Anyways, what I was trying to tell you was the instructions for your first official assignment as my apprentice. You will go down there," he pointed to the stairs descending into nothingness, "with one standard candle that I will give you. Your objective is to stay there the whole night and you are not going to let the candle go out under any circumstances."

"...I have to stay there the whole night? Down there? Without any salt?!"

With a raised eyebrow he replied, "Salt doesn't affect spirits. You'll be just as well off without salt than you would be with it. It's about time someone told you." At my disbelieving expression he rolled his eyes, "Yes, I do know about your unhealthy fear of anything that resembles a ghost. However, you'll have to work through that if you're going to survive this apprenticeship."

That was the absolute last thing I wanted to hear. It freaked me out more than I would ever admit to anyone; yes, I had expected to come into contact with ghosts around the old man, but I never expected him to make me face them. I never expected anyone to do that. "How did you-"

"Au—I mean, your mum informed while we were conversing about the possibility of you becoming my apprentice. Now then," he took out a candle approximately as wide as my thumb and as tall as my hand and lit it with a match, "it's about time you get down there." He held out the candle for me to grab, but I refused to take it.

"If you expect me to go down there then you're sorely mistaken, you cranky Brit. I am not going down into some place that creepy and dark for a whole night without any sleep. Let alone without you telling me why I have to do it in the first place. So you can send me back home and tell my Ma that I failed your stupid initiation and that you don't want me."

Instead of exploding at me like I expected him to, he simply sighed heavily. "You are a piece of work. I didn't expect you'd really be this difficult, let alone daft. You're wasting time, you know. While you're sitting here arguing with me, this candle is melting. You really don't want to be stuck down there in complete darkness, do you?"

"What about my stuff I brought with me?"

"I put your belongings in the room you will normally be staying in for the night."

Glaring at him, I ripped the candle out of his grasp and began to descend the wooden stairs. After a few steps, I collected my wits and realized what I was doing. Terrified, I turned around to beg Mr. Kirkland's forgiveness and to let me pass on spending the night in the darkness, but when I turned around, Mr. Kirkland said before I could even utter a word, "Remember; the only one who can actually harm you down there is yourself." And with that, he slammed the door shut and locked it. There was no turning back.

With a nervous gulp and a shaking step, I walked down the creaking stairs until I hit the bottom. Despite the light the small candle gave, I could barely see past my own nose. There was a cool draft, making me believe the cellar was actually quite large. My heart was pounding, and I could hardly breathe. A particularly strong gust of air came towards me, threatening to blow the candle out. I blocked the small, dwindling flame using my hand with clumsy, panicked movements.

I heard something that sounded like chains rattling, causing my hands to shake so violently out of fear that the candle nearly went out. I knew it was a ghost or a ghoul. It was some kind of spirit, and it terrified me. I sat on the ground next to the candle, and started rocking myself back and forth, trying to calm myself. I could feel myself on the verge of a panic attack when I heard a young woman whisper "Hello? Is someone there?" For some reason, this seemed so much more terrifying than any screaming spirit could be. I was ashamed to feel wetness on my cheeks and my chin trembling. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be in my warm bed surrounded my salt. Most of all, I wanted my mom and Mattie.

"Please, help me." I heard a sob, and it was not my own. "Please, you have to help me. I'm begging you." The woman's voice only got louder, along with the rattling chains. There were soft rhythmic footsteps coming toward me, and I bit down on my tongue, resiting the urge to scream. After a few seconds, the footsteps halted in front of me. Slowly, I rose my head and looked at the figure standing right in front of me.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I was paralyzed with fear. If the spirit didn't kill me first, fear would. She was adorned in a ripped an heavily blood stained white night gown, and had shackles attached to five of her limbs. Her hair was long and brown, and she had sunken-in brown eyes with delicate features and pale skin. At just a glance you'd think she was human, but if you gazed long enough you could see she was just a tad transparent.

She stretched out one hand towards me, begging me to help her. She got so close to me, nearly touching my face, when her hand came into the candlelight and started to fade away. Acting as if I had stabbed her or something, her eyes widened and she withdrew her arm as quickly as possible. Despite her hand reforming as soon as it was out of the light, tears started streaming down her face. She broke out in a gentle sob, and started moaning. "I just want to see my sons Feliciano and Lovino again. H-help me."

I was slightly relieved and not paralyzed anymore; she couldn't touch me. As long as I had the candle, she couldn't touch me. That's what he meant when he said salt doesn't ward off ghosts, I thought, because light does!

I stayed there, rolled in a ball beside the candle for a long time. I was still frightened, but less so than I was before. The woman would walk around crying, and forget I was even there. Sometimes she would walk out of my sight, and sometimes she would come back towards me, begging for my help in seeing her sons. I would've felt sorry for her if she had actually still been alive, and had I not been so scarred.

After a while, I began to get nervous. The candle grew dimmer and dimmer as the hours passes as the wax wore further and further down. I only had a few more hours before dawn (I know how to keep track of time), but I knew the candle wouldn't last that long. As the candle dwindled down into nothing, I started shaking again, knowing there wasn't anything to stop the ghost from harming me now.

As if she heard my thoughts, the dead woman began to come toward me once again. I tried convincing myself that she wouldn't hurt me because she hadn't shown any violent tendencies before. But the candle was there to keep her at bay, I thought miserably.

"Help me," she cried, "Please, help me!"

I curled into a ball on the ground, tucking my head between my knees. That didn't stop her; she knelt down and grabbed me by my shoulders. The coldness radiated from the hands and into my bones making me tremble. Her shrieks started penetrating my scull giving me a huge headache—it was overwhelming. Now that she could touch me, she started getting more violent. I couldn't breathe; the coldness prevented me form doing so. I could feel the her freezing breath on my face (she shouldn't have had any breath; she was a ghost) as she started clutching me tighter and tighter. I felt like I was being crushed from sheer force.

I may have been wrong before about me dying, I thought, but I know that this is definitely it. I don't have a small candle to protect me anymore. It's not a dream either...it might be...okay, I really hope it is. That would mean that I didn't actually soil myself. Just as I knew I was going to die because my lungs were getting crushed to death (thanks to the hag), the most random thing came to my mind. (Random for me; I would normally only think of food when I was about to die). I remembered Arthur telling me right before he enclosed me in darkness, "Remember, the only one who can actually eat ham down there is yourself." Stupid old man...there wasn't any ham...unless he hid it, and the whole purpose of me coming down here was to find it!

The crushing pain in my chest and the inability to even draw a shallow breath brought me back to the present.

Arthur wouldn't do that; I bet he doesn't even eat ham. What could he have been saying, then? Man, this hurts. Stupid spirits only exist to harm the living. Harm kind of sounds like ham...wait a minute. The old man didn't say anything about ham. He said, "The only one who can harm you down there is yourself."

It was a long shot, but it was the only option I had at the moment. With all the courage my 14-year-old self could muster, I took a breath whispered out loud, "You can't touch me. You're just a spirit." I repeated this over and over and over in my mind, doing my utmost best to convince myself.

The most amazing thing happened. I slipped through her grasp and fell back onto the ground with a thump. I started gasping air desperately as my whole body practically sighed in relief. I laughed as she tried grabbing at me again while wailing uncontrollably. She was still there, still real; she just couldn't touch me now that I knew she couldn't harm me. However, I still hadn't conquered my fear of the supernatural; not by a long shot. I still had quite a long ways to go.

The next few hours were uneventful. It was filled with wailing, chain rattling, and me trying not to regress into a state of paranoia.

After what seemed like forever, I heard the wooden hatch creak open and Mr. Kirkland calling, "Alfred, you can come up now."

Despite the accent, I had never been happier to hear another person's voice before. I sprinted up the stairs, slammed the hatch closed with a huge clunk, and locked it so there was no way of the ghost getting out. Breathing heavily, I collapsed on the floor and attempted to slow down my beating heart. "I don't know if you know this or not," I gasped, "but there's a crazy ghost down there."

He cracked a smile at my distressed state. "I noticed. I expect your candle burned out approximately three hours ago?"

My eyes widened in horror. "You knew it would go out?! And you still SENT ME DOWN THERE?! What the sweet baby Jesus in Jerusalem!?"

"I know that you are tired, but I still do not tolerate that kind of language from you. Now then, I have prepared breakfast for the both of us. I will explain everything, but you really should change first. I can't expect that soiled trousers are comfortable."

It was official; I hated my life.

For breakfast, the old man gave me these weird triangle-shaped rocks and called them scones. Apparently, they were eatable. I began to miss grits.

We ate in silence for a few minutes before the old man sighed while rubbing his face, "If makes you feel any better, you were never in any real danger."

"Oh yeah?" I challenged, "Then why did I feel her crushing me? I would have died if I didn't figure out that she couldn't touch my unless I thought she could and it would've been all thanks to you, old man!"

He snorted, "Don't be so dramatic. I was monitoring you the whole time. The most that would've happened is you being knocked out from the lack of oxygen before I came down there and took you to safety. I dare say you cut it close, but you came through in the end. I honestly was very doubtful you would be successful at all, to be honest with you."

"Wait, wait, wait," I said, holding my hand up. "Why make me do that at all? Especially if you already knew I had a phobia of ghosts. Or do you just enjoy scaring the sh-poop out of people?"

"Alfred, what do you think a spook does?"

"Uh...rob graves?"

Mr. Kirkland gave me a disgusted look. "That's repulsive and despicable. No, a spook keeps its town safe from any, to use a term you might be familiar with, paranormal activities."

My whole viewpoint of Ol' Man England changed completely at that moment in time. "You mean you're kind of like a hero? That is so totally awesome!"

He only raised one bushy eyebrow with an amused expression at my comment. "I guess you could sort of say I'm like a hero."

"But if you are...then why don't people know about it? And why choose me of all eligible people to be your apprentice?"

The Brit's expression turned from being amused into deadly serious. "In order to be a spook, you need to keep your activities in unadulterated secrecy from anyone but your employer, obviously. It's a precaution set in order to not cause unnecessary panic throughout the town. As for choosing you as my apprentice, you were the only one suited for the job."

"How so?"

He snorted and looked at me as if I was a complete idiot. "Not just anyone can become a spook. You have to have the sight. I don't really think I need to elaborate on that; it's pretty straight forward."

Even I caught on to what he was referring to. "So, because I can see ghosts like you can, I'm your apprentice?"

"Yes, basically. However, it's not just ghosts you will be able to see, as you will discover. There are many different types of creatures in the other realm, not all of them bad. Unfortunately, it is the 'bad' ones we come into contact with, more often than not."

And...he lost me. "What do you mean, other realm?"

"There are a few different realms on the plane we live in. They can see, feel, and hear us, but not all of us can see, feel, and hear them; only the ones with our eyesight can, or if they had a certain connection with one of these creatures which still only enables them to have contact with that one being. Our ability to interact with them makes us qualified for dealing with them. Simply put, we are the bridge between the two realms. We can access either. Are you following me?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm following you. So, last night was kind of a test to see if I have what it takes?"

"Exactly. To be able to be my apprentice, it is of the utmost importance that you do not let fear cloud your judgment. The only reason she was able to hurt you was because you thought she could. Thinking she could touch and harm you threw down the barrier of our realms between you and that particular spirit, enabling her to have physical contact with you. It's not like that with all of the creatures from the other realm, mind you. Only certain ones."

It was almost surreal to be learning all of this; I almost wanted to tell myself he was crazy, and spewing a bunch on nonsense. Everyone else I knew would do exactly that. Except Ma. In an instant, it all clicked. She knew what a spook does, and knew that I had what it took. That's why she contacted Mr. Kirkland to take me on as his apprentice. After it all, she's still the only one who really understands.

Ol' Man England interrupted my thoughts with, "What ever did make you so terrified of spirits?"

Thinking about it, I found I didn't really have a good answer to that question. "Nothing really, other that a story told by an older boy at my school house a few years ago. That was the trigger, I guess you could say."

Kirkland glanced at me for a moment, before he sifted in his seat and stared off into space. Finally he said, "You shouldn't let others influence you so. It's not healthy."

For once, I didn't respond. The whole situation was so messed up and weird and bizarre, that I thought it best just to go along with it. That's always what you've been good at. I thought back to how terrified I was while trapped in the basement with the ghost woman, and remembered how she constantly cried two names; Feliciano and Lovino. They were both weird and unusual names; not ones I have ever heard of before. "Um, Mr. Kirkland, do you know who she was? The ghost woman, I mean."

His cat-like gaze fell upon me, as he sipped his earl gray tea (I wasn't a huge fan of that stuff, but it did have a rather pleasing aroma). "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Her name was Bianca Vargas. It wasn't too long ago that she passed, actually." He stirred his tea casually like he as if he didn't sound like a man who had just admitted to murdering someone.

I knew there was something off, I thought, this man's crazy! I should've never trusted him, or believed a word he said! "Hm, maybe I'll stir some cream into it, just this once," he muttered absentmindedly. He stood up to go get some cream, and not only did he return with the cream, but also a knife. A knife. Not a spoon like any other normal person would use to stir tea.

"You know," I laughed nervously, "I think I better visit home now, I'm sure my mother's already missing me..." Forgetting all of my aching tiredness, I bolted to the front door, but Kirkland had already gotten there before me. Darn those longer legs! Just wait until I'm older; I will be taller than him, and then he'll be the one that has to look up at me!

He was holding the knife upright, and frowning down at me. "Don't be preposterous, you saw her yesterday. Right, now, she's most likely still relieved you are finally out of her hair. I know I would be."

"I'm not being a platypus! Now let me leave, you murderer!"

"Little boy, I am not a murderer. And the word isn't 'platypus', it's 'preposterous'! They are two different words entirely! The very notion you would mistake the two makes me physically ill...just when I think think it is impossible for you to get any more unintelligent, you go ahead and do the impossible."

I quickly spun around, and pinned him against the door, making him drop the knife with a loud clank. His eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch along with his eyes. He was slightly surprised by my quick actions, but not overly so. His eyebrows remind me of two fat caterpillars...it even looks like they're breathing.

"You are quite strong for your small stature. Now unhand me at once, and you shan't be punished. Oh, and if you're thinking I'm the one that killed Mrs. Vargas, you are sorely mistaken. That was an affair I had little to nothing to do with."

That still didn't explain the knife. "Then why didn't you bring a spoon to stir your tea instead of a knife?"

Kirkland rolled his eyes looking royally pissed. I hated it when he did that. I had only been there for a day and a half, yet he already treated me like he couldn't wait to get rid of me. He was always scowling, always giving me a disproving look, always just being a stupid, cranky Brit.

Before I could blink, Kirkland kicked my knee, catching me by surprise, forcing me to let him go in the process. Grabbing my arm, he flipped me onto the floor, pressed his knee against my stomach, and held my arms down. "What is the bloody matter with you?! You're more paranoid than an old, senile, war veteran! I am going to let you up now and you will calmly follow me back to the kitchen in a nice and orderly fashion. Alright?" I reluctantly nodded.

I felt the pressure of his knee to my gut release as he carefully maneuvered himself off of me. Standing up, I rubbed my sore writs glaring at Kirkland all the while. He repeated the ritual of his oh so infamous eye roll, before leading me back to the kitchen. "You're actually a natural at that," he commented with a mildly impressed tone. "You're surprisingly very strong and have a very good grip. If I wasn't as skilled as I am, I'm not sure if I would've been able to break through your hold at all. Of course, you still need training and conditioning, but you will learn all of that while under my tutelage."

We walked through the narrow and dark hallway until the reached the dinning area, where we were having the "breakfast". I sat down and looked up at the dimly lit, gray ceiling. It was no wonder Kirkland always acted like his pants were on way too tight; a person that always surrounded themselves with depressing things was bound to become depressed themselves. "If you didn't kill her and she died in your basement while you still lived here, then what in tarnation happened?"

Kirkland's face deepened in its ever-present scowl. He smacked my hand, reminding me quite a bit of Ma. "If memory serves, than I have already told you that I do not tolerate that kind of language from the likes of you. Young man, you have been acting very disrespectful, and if you don't stop your foolish antics soon, then I will be forced to take drastic measures."

"Like what?" I mocked.

He smiled at me. It wasn't normal smile, though; it was the kind of expression a cat gets when it is toying with its prey. "How would you like it if I happened to mention to your mum how much trouble you are giving me? Do you think she'd take to kindly to that?"

Darn that stupid corn hole and his stupid face... "No."

Instantly, his face fell into an easy and friendly smile. "I'm glad we have an understanding. Now, you asked about Bianca Vargas, am I correct?" At my nodding, he continued, "That's actually a very interesting story. You see, Bianca was from the Italian mafia. Do you know what that is?" I shook my head that I did not know. "Alright then, the Italian mafia is a group of criminals that usually share some form of relation who operate based on their own laws and ethics. They, obviously, originate from Italy. They've migrated throughout Europe and have become quite the problem in places like England," of course he would mention England, "but they aren't too common in the Americas yet. There are criminal groups such as Italian Mafia's all over the world, but I won't get into that. Anyways, Bianca was a part of a mafia group that migrated to America. Unfortunately, they didn't realize Americans detest unfriendly foreigners. Long story short, the mafia group tried to assert their dominance, but by being one of the more weak and cowardly mafia associations, got beat up by the local Americans who took Bianca's two children, Feliciano and Lovino, and proceeded to wipe out the entire association, save for the two children. Some bloody wanker who wasn't too fond of me thought it would be absolutely hilarious to murder Bianca in my basement. They paid for that, mind you."

It was such an awful massacre he spoke of, but by the way he explained it, he made it sound no more horrifying than getting stung by a bee. "That's...awful. I mean, I know that it isn't right for Italians to try to boss us around, but that doesn't make it okay for us to wipe them out. At least the two boys are alright..."

Kirkland made a sound of annoyance. "Do you know how irritating it is to have a dead body in your house?! Blood stains about all types of fabric and furniture, and it just stinks up the whole place. On top of that, the spirit is not at rest, so it decides to stay and haunt my basement! I store all my rum down there, it is quality rum too mind you, but every time I go to fetch it, she's down there wailing in my ear."

"You're horrible!" I shouted. "People were killed out of fear and spite, for god's sake, a woman was murdered in your house, and all you have to say about it is how inconvenient it was for you! H-how dare you!" By the time I finished my mini rant, I was standing and only a few inches from his face.

The only reaction the old man showed was a slight increase of the scowl and a swipe of his hand to wipe off some spit I had accidentally spewed on his face. "Little boy, it is a big and cruel world out there. People die everyday. We both know this is a fact. Why should I care about a killing that transpired just because it was close to where I dwell? I could worry myself out of my mind every second of the day because I know that injustice is happening in this world every single time I breathe. I could dissolve into tears because I know that as I am speaking to you in this moment in time, a small child has been violated in horrible ways, an honest person has just gotten cheated, and war continues on. It doesn't make a difference is it happens outside my front door, or back in England. There isn't any point in worrying about something you can't do anything to change. Being that way is how you survive in life."

While his words disgusted ad horrified me, I knew he was right. That still didn't change the fact that he revolted me with his words. Clenching my jaw, I thought it best to leave the matted alone, least I wanted to get lectured for another hour.

Abruptly, he stood up in his chair, causing me to stumble and fall into mine. Grabbing his dark, heavy cloak off the back of his chair, he motioned for me to follow him. I trudged after him to the front door.

Yawning I said, "Where are you going?"

Kirkland slipped on his black boots, began lacing them up and replied, "We're going to the river."

My eyelids drooped in exhaustion at the very thought of staying awake for more that five minutes. Before I had been keeping awake out of fear, but now that all the fright had gone out of me, I truly felt the effects of staying awake for the past twenty-four hours. "What about sleep?"

"By god, stop complaining so profusely. You'll sleep when I tell you that you can sleep. You are going to have to get used to days without sleep being a spook. Now get you shoes on! Bloody hell, you can't possibly tell me those are your shoes?! They look as if they were made out of pigs' skin!"

I shot him a glare. "They are made out of pigs' skin."

"That just will simply not suffice. I suppose I will have to provide better foot-wear for you as well."

It was cold outside, making me long for a thick cloak such as Kirkland's. "And, why exactly are we going to the river?"

"I'll tell you when you need to know," was his response. "However, what I will tell you is that this will be your fist job as a spook's apprentice. That is to say, don't start panicking when things get messy."

[1] I know that it is impossible for Alfred to get mid-sun madness under the conditions he was in; I just thought it sounded like something he would say. FYI, for those who don't know, mid-sun madness is kind of like someone going insane because the sun is up all day without setting. So, people who live in certain parts of Alaska could get it, or penguins in Antarctica. XD (If this is wrong, someone please tell me and I will correct my mistake).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

At the river, Kirkland and I met couple of pretty girls and we all got wet together. Well, it was mainly the old man and the girls (or river nymphs, as he later called them) that got wet, but somewhere in the middle of their three-some fun I was dragged in, and it became a four-some. Things got really crazy after the third guy showed up. Too bad he was asleep.

If you are currently thinking something like, "How could Arthur drag an innocent 14-year-old boy into something like that?!" then your mind in is a deep gutter, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. I, personally, blame your parents. But for those of you that think that way (and I guarantee it's probably most of you) I will explain to you what really happened so you don't get too excited.

Kirkland dragged me all the way to the edge of town where the great Yules River resided. It was rather secluded in the forest without a single soul in sight. The most civilization we saw on our trek was a few log cabins.

The closer we got to the river, the louder a faint giggling had gotten. Right before the river came into view, the old man stopped me. "Listen closely," he whispered, "this is how our job works. A family that resides not too far from here reported to the mayor that their son went missing after a trip to the river. The mayor came to me, and asked if I knew of any creatures from the other realm that lives in the Yules river. After I said yes, he paid me to investigate and find the boy."

"Is that how you get all your tasks, or, um, jobs?"

Kirkland frowned at me, and motioned for me to talk in a softer tone. "Not so loud, they have a great sense of hearing! To answer your question, yes, that is how I get most of my missions and almost all of my pay, more often than not." He swiftly turned on his heal, clasped me on the shoulder, leaned down and whispered, "Here's what I want you to do; you will climb the tree approximately twenty-seven feet south of a big, gray stone the sits by the riverside in the direction I will be walking. The tree is recognizable by the missile-toe growing in its high branches, and the poison ivy growing at the base of the trunk. You will watch and observe me until I call for you. No matter what, you are not to utter a single word, or do anything that might provoke them. Understood?"

I nodded. "Just one question; who exactly are 'they'? And do you think they have the missing guy?"

"That's two questions, actually. 'They' are water nymphs, and I am almost certain they have the boy." He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm forcing him to stop. "What is it now?" he whispered irritably.

"Just one more question; how were the nymphs able to take the guy if he couldn't even see them?"

Kirkland gave me a tired smile. "You're actually asking a smart question for once. A lot of the creatures of the other realm can choose if they want to be seen by human's or not—that is to say, they have the power to lift the invisible barrier between our world and theirs that prevents normal humans from seeing them. It's just people like us that can see them all the time."

"Why didn't you tell me that when you were explaining all this magical stuff?"

He simply shrugged. "It must've slipped my mind." He spun back around once more causing his black cloak to ripple in the wind, and motioned for me to follow him but to be quiet about it.

I sneaked behind him, doing my best not to make a sound. By the patronizing glares the old man shot back my way, I didn't think I was doing a very good job of sneaking.

After a while, the river began to come into view. The rush of the ever-flowing waves masked any sound I could make. The laughing started to sound like it was coming from all around me. Pinpointing the rock that sat by the riverside, I hastily made my way in the direction Kirkland had said the tree was. It wasn't hard to find; it looked exactly like how Kirkland described it. (It helped that no other tree had poison ivy growing at it's roots. I was careful to avoid that). Scampering up the tree, I realized why Kirkland had made such a big fuss about which tree I climbed. It had a spectacular view of the whole river, and I could see Kirkland clear as day. It was far enough that they wouldn't spot me, yet close enough that I could still listen in.

Kirkland picked up a smooth stone, tested it's weight, and threw it into the river so that it skipped across the surface downstream once before being carried off into into the distance by the ruthless waves. How did he skip a stone across a flowing stream? I wondered.

A few seconds later, two of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen in my life rose up out of the water. One had long blond hair that streamed down her back with unforgiving, dark sapphire eyes. The other had curly brown hair just as long, with much kinder and softer celery-colored eyes. They both had elf-like features that gave away the fact that they weren't human. In one word, I could describe the best thing about those two nymphs; naked. They were 100%, completely and totally naked. To my 14-year-old hormones, it felt like god had descended down from the havens and bestowed upon me Canadian bacon. The kind they serve in haven.

The worst thing about the two nymphs was how their hair covered their ditties. No matter how I twisted and turned to get one small, glorious peak, the long locks of hair refused to budge.

"Hello Arthur," said the brunette, "It has been a very long time since you last visited!"

"Yes," said the blond, "it has. What you want? Have you found big brother?" Even with a scowl that could rival Kirkland's, she looked stunning.

The old man laughed (laughed; actually laughed) and replied, "Elizabeta, Natalia! You two didn't change one bit! How have the two lovely ladies been?"

Elizabeta, the brunette, giggled while Natalia, the blond, deepened her frown. "Look here, puny English man," said Natalia, "we did nothing wrong. Go home. Shoo!" She splashed him with water.

They both talk really weird; especially that Natalia, I thought.

Elizabeta scowled at her companion and smacked her arm. "Nat! We don't get visitors very often! Be nice, we don't want to scare him away!"

Natalia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I apologize for not being as much as a whore as you are."

"Nat, I''m not a whore!" the brunette cried.

The meaner nymph sighed loudly and obnoxiously. "We have been over this. You are big slut and whore."

Elizabeta glared at the blond, knelt down to the surface of the water, and splashed Natalia. "Take that back! Take it back!"

"But it is true! No take backs! I tell Arthur what you did!"

"Don't you dare!"

"A week ago, Elizabeta—"

She got cut off when the brunette tackled her into the river. The two were at each other with full on flying fists and—holy, is that a frying pan!?

The two women fought it out until Natalia managed to hold Elizabeta under the water for and extended period of time allowing her to say. "Elizabeta took a human male last week! I saw her!" She said this in the tone of someone tattling to the teacher.

The brunette burst out of the water, but she wasn't gasping for air. Probably has gills, or something, I figured. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"Promises are meant to be broken!"

"You're just saying that because your brother Ivan gave up immortality to get away from you two centuries ago! I can't believe you're still upset about that!"

"I'm sure he's still alive out there, somewhere..."

"Face it, Nat, he's dead. Humans don't usually don't live past seventy years. He wouldn't have survived for two centuries."

"You're lying!" Nat cried, and burst into tears right then and there. She then dove back into the river, and disappeared under the the crashing waves.

Elizabeta stood smiling at Kirkland, while the old man continued to stare worriedly at the spot where Natalia has gone. "So you met someone," he said, breaking the awkward silence.

Elizabeta's smile widened considerably as a blush overtook her entire face. "I guess you could say that. He just came walking by the river so elegantly that I just couldn't help myself! So I swept him away with me, so that we might get to be together."

"More like so you can stare at his ugly face for the rest of eternity while you do creepy things." Natalia popped up from out of the river to stick her tongue at Elizabeta.

"Not true!" claimed Elizabeta, "We're happy together, Nat! Stop sticking your long, hideous nose into other people's love life!"

"I don't call a sick obsession love!"

"You're sure one to talk! You tried to get your own brother to marry you! That's disgusting!"

"He was adopted! Males can't be river nymphs, stupid!"

"I know that, stupid!"

"You back to whatever polluted pond in Hungary you came from!"

"You go back to whatever cesspool you came from in the backwash country, Belarus!"

"You need to return the male."

"No I do not!"

Simultaneously, both girls turned toward Kirkland and yelled, "Arthur!" They looked expectantly at him, waiting for him to take a side.

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and said, "I'm sorry Elizabeta, but I'm going to have to side with Natalia on this issue. I bet he has family that would miss him. It's a bit cruel to take someone from their home so suddenly like that. Also, you'd have to keep him in an eternal sleep to live with you down there. If he really is that young, that would mean he never got a chance to live his life out."

Natalia gave the other nymph a smug, satisfied look while the nymph on the receiving end of the look pouted. "B-but, I've never liked a human quite this much..."

"If you really like him, than you'd release him. This is the wrong way to go about it," Kirkland pointed out.

Elizabeta looked down, ashamed of herself. "W-w-will you make sure he gets home safely? For me?"

Kirkland gave the girl a fond look. "Well, of course! It would be no trouble at all."

"I will retrieve him!" sad Natalia.

"No, I will!" Before either of them said anything else, they both dived beneath the waves, disappearing.

Once they were gone, Kirkland called, "Alfred! Alfred, come down now!"

Scampering down the tree, I sprinted to where Ol' Man England was, carefully avoiding the poison ivy at my feet.

"I'm going to introduce you to Elizabeta and Natalia. You are not to say anything, except, 'I'm ever so pleased to meet you both' and smile, got it?"

I nodded. "Got it. But why are they so...crazy and messed up? Are all nymphs like that, or are they just—" I stopped talking when I saw Elizabeta and Natalia looking at me with angry eyes, holding a sleeping boy a few years older than myself. "Uh...hi girls, I am ever so pissed to meet your potatoes, wait, that wasn't right..." I laughed nervously.

Kirkland put his head in his hands and murmured, "Bloody hell..."

"Arthur, who is this?" said Elizabeta.

"Yes, are we allowed to punish this puny child?" asked Natalie.

Sighing, he replied, "No, I'm sorry, I can't allow that. This is Alfred, my apprentice. I apologize perfused for his cruel and ignorant words. He's still very much new, and untrained."

"Trained?" I protested, "Am I some sort of donkey or some—"

Kirkland clamped one of his smelly hands over my mouth. It was horrible; it was clammy and smelled of dried fish. He gave a nervous laugh and said, "Oh Alfred, you're so funny. As I was saying, I assure you, he will get punished when we arrive back at the house. Oh dear, is that the young man? I guess Alfred and I will take him home now, if you—"

The two woman pulled the boy away when Kirkland made a grab for him. "Now wait just a minute," said Elizabeta, "we'll give him to you in exchange for your young apprentice."

"I agree," stated Natalia. "This airhead is actually speaking logic, for once in her miserable life. The child of yours needs to learn some manners. He is most rude. Give us the boy, and you can be on your way."

"Oh dear," said Kirkland, "I was afraid something like this would happen. I'm sorry ladies, but I can't let you take Alfred here. It's such a pain to replace a spook's apprentice; they die so easily, and yet are so rare."

"Then I'm keeping Rodrick here," said Elizabeta, clutching the boy closer to her chest. "Come on Natalia, let us take our leave."

Lightning fast, Kirkland grabbed Elizabeth's arm, halting the two women as they were about to dive back under the turning river. "My sincerest apologizes," he really did look apologetic, "but I cannot let you take the boy either. I hope you understand."

Once more he made a grab for the boy, or Rodrick, but Elizabeta hissed, baring sharp, pointed teeth. In fact, it seemed as if her whole body made some sort of transformation. Her skin became scaly, her eyes turned black, the nails on her fingers elongated to a crisp point, and the flesh on her hands morphed to form webbed fingers. Bottom line, it was terrifying.

"By the Queen, why does this always happen to me?" Kirkland complained. "Good thing I was prepared. Alfred, keep an eye on Natalia while I deal with Elizabeta." I looked over to the blonde, who underwent the same transformation as her counterpart. She smirked at me before she grabbed me, and dragged me into the water.

Being a river, I thought it would be pretty shallow. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Immediately, I knew I couldn't still be in a river. We seemed to be in a huge pool of water; if I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have thought we were transported to a different place all together the minute she pulled me under water. Wait, that's probably exactly what happened. The weird thing was, I wasn't frightened very much. Maybe it's because she wasn't a ghost and was alive; I don't know. All I know it what happened next.

I tried screaming in her face, which didn't do much; she remained not phased. Which was extremely stupid on my part, considering it made me lose a lot of oxygen. At that point, I knew if I didn't get out soon, I would drown. Would that be so bad? Whispered a voice that sounded like me, but at the same time didn't. Why would you want to leave? It wouldn't be so bad. She's so pretty too...And she was. I got transfixed with her beautiful face, smiling down at me...Wait a minute, I thought, Natalia doesn't smile. Not once in that conversation with Arthur and Elizabeta did she once do anything remotely like smiling. This is...

I heard a very faint voice call my name. "Alfred!" they cried. "Alfred, don't be a sodding idiot!"

Ma? I thought. Not Ma...she wouldn't be down here...

"Alfred!" it called again, "You'd think even a creature as dull as you would be able to tell when they're drowning!"

In an instant, I snapped into motion. Grabbing Natalia's hair, I yanked hard, forcing her to release me. I wasn't much of a swimmer, but that didn't mean I couldn't do it altogether. Kicking the nymph in the face to delay her, I swam as hard as I could towards the surface. It was difficult; I was already dragged so far deep, and I was running out of air very quickly. I was extremely light headed, and it felt as if my lungs would explode at any given moment.

Don't think about that, I told myself, swim harder. Faster. Think of the riverside with it's glorious, heavenly air...

Taking a quick look below me to see if the evil nymph was gaining on me, I was surprised to see her drifting through the water, completely motionless. When she moved so that I was able to see her face, I was shocked.

She was unconscious.

Looking up, I found there was no surface; just an endless about of water in front of me. I began to panic. I thought of the riverside and of Arthur, feeling desperate tears come to my face. I wanted air. I was going to drown and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I can still swim. I reached up to propel myself upwards, thinking of nothing but the riverside and air. I was shocked to see the top on my arm disappear, and the feeling of cool air through my fingers. With as much strength as I had left, I heaved myself upwards, breaking through the surface of the river. I gasped in air greedily, before I realized I was being carried downstream with the current.

I felt a hand grasp my own, and looked up to see Kirkland grasping my hand, and hauling me out of the river. He must have flung something in Elizabeta's eyes, for she was screeching, and clawing at them. In her panic, she dropped Roderick.

Kirkland grabbed the young man before telling me to run. He didn't need to tell me twice.

After pulling a good distance between ourselves and the nymphs, Kirkland stopped, set Roderick down, then sat down himself. Panting, he said, "By the Queen, it's hard to carry another person and run. By the way, how did you manage to get passed Natalia?" I simply shrugged, too tired to say anything. "Do not just shrug me off, this is important. While nymphs aren't very powerful, they aren't exactly easy to defeat once they drag you in the water. Because of how well you could restrain me, I thought you could handle yourself, and wouldn't be as stupid as to let her grab you; apparently, I was wrong. What exactly happened?"

My heart was beating so rapidly and my lungs were on fire. I had to rest a minute more before I could actually manage words. "W-when she first pulled my under, I was kind of surprised that I wasn't scared or anything. Then I heard someone calling me, and Natalia was smiling, and that's when I realized I was drowning. I kind of pulled her off me, kicked her in the face, and swam to the top."

"Didn't she swim after you?"

"I guess I kicked kind of hard, because she fell unconscious."

Kirkland's eyes widened considerably as mouth hung slightly agape. "Bloody hell...I knew you were strong, but that's just...that's just impossible." He cleared his throat, and composed himself once more. "How did-how did you manage to get to the top of the river?"

"I don't know. I was just thinking of how much I wanted to reach the surface because I was kind of drowning, and I wanted to breathe."

Kirkland nodded, like that made perfect sense. "Right then. I'll ask you more questions when we get back, but for now we should work on getting Rodrick here home before he wakes up. Do you think you can carry him?"

"I can try." Bending down, I lifted the young man over my shoulder. I didn't see what the old man was complaining about; Roderick was as light as a feather.

I followed Kirkland to Roderick's residence. It didn't take much longer, and the whole trek was in silence.

Once we got there, we sorted everything out with his family (who barely spoke English; apparently, they were from some weird place called "Austria") and went on our merry way.

"We need to stop downtown. I have to collect my earnings from the mayor for retuning the boy. We'll visit Roderick at a later date to interrogate him on how much he remembers."

Downtown is where Mattie works, I thought with a smile. "Do I have to go with you to see the mayor?" I asked.

Casting me a suspicious glance the old man replied, "I don't see where else you would go, and it would be a good idea to introduce my new apprentice...why?"

"I was wondering if I could stop by the town's library."

Kirkland lifted on of his caterpillar eyebrows in a genuinely surprised manner. "I was unaware a farm boy could read. What in the world would would you want in a library."

I shot him an annoyed look, "Actually I can read, and not just English; I can read Latin too. But I wanted to see my brother, Mathew. He's apprenticed to Mr. Wang, the current book keeper there."

"I was kidding, of course I know you can read. And for your information, I was already informed who's the book keeper at the library," the old man grumbled. "You have an unhealthy attachment to people, you know that?"

I scowled at him. What's his problem? "It's called being a normal human being. You should try it sometime."

"Hardy har har, very funny."

"So, can I go or not?"

"I guess there isn't any harm in it...but don't do anything stupid, and don't leave until I come and retrieve you. I might take a while, and I might be only a few minutes; it depends."

Once we got to town, I remembered that I was still wet. I had completely forgotten I had gotten drenched in water because of the adrenaline rush that comes with running for your life. I had mostly dried, but it was still very damp in certain places that made me very uncomfortable. Maybe Mattie can give me a change of cloths...

I ran throughout the town, feeling a sense of freedom that I had sorely missed ever since I found out about my apprenticeship to Arthur Kirkland. I loved the familiar smells and sounds I heard while running through the streets. A few people I passed greeted me with a wave and friendly expression, while others yelled at me.

Before I knew it, I stood in front of the small, humble book shop. It was a small, quaint wooden building nestled in between a bank and barbershop. Much to my dismay, the sign in the window of the library read "closed". That's not right, I thought, I know it should be open this time on a Thursday. Something's not right...

I tried the door, but it was locked up tight. Fortunately, locks were such fragile things; all I had to do was apply a little pressure and—bingo! The lock snapped.

I opened the door wide and strode inside. Everything was neatly in place; I had no reason to believe there was something amiss, other than the cool chill I got up my spine. No, no matter how ordinary things looked, there was definitely something not right. And it's my job, as the spook's apprentice and neighborhood hero to find out what!

I proceeded to walk around the small library/book repair and shop (really, Mr. Wang did about everything book-wise), looking for any clue I could find. My search proved to be fruitless; everything was in order, and just as clean as it always was.

I guess I was wrong, I though glumly. I'm just too hyped up because of the whole nymph thing. They're probably out on a lunch break early, or something like that.

My gaze wondered to the staircase that led up to Mr. Wang's and Matthew's apartment that sat atop of the book store. Well, I didn't come here for nothing. Might as well snoop around Mattie's room to see if he has any secrets worth blackmail material for future reference. Might come in handy. Hmm..I better steal some cloths while I'm at it. My own damp one's are getting pretty uncomfortable...

I walked up the stairs to the door that lead into the apartment. I expected to have to break another lock, but much to my surprise, the door was unlocked. That's odd.

The first door on my right had a carving of a red, Chinese dragon, along with some Chinese scripture to go along with it underneath. It was Yao Wang's room. I knew I really shouldn't have, but the sudden surge of curiosity was simply too strong. I tried to ignore it the best I could, and almost did if not for that memory of my conversation with Mattie the morning I was taken away by the spook hadn't happened to pop up in my mind.

Somewhere, probably underneath this building, there was a whole archive that contained a detailed file on everything single person living in the town. Maybe beyond that as well...I could tell Matthew was holding out on me. Everyone in the town included Arthur Kirkland. If I could just get my hands on his file, I figured, then maybe that way I could know how more about who exactly I'm apprenticed to.

It was simply too tempting. I had to get that file; I just had to. Gazing at the crimson, majestic dragon, I knew just where door the the archives would be.

You can't hide bind your fancy British accent anymore, Kirkland. I'll kind what you're hiding, you just wait and see.


	5. Chapter 5

Okay, so maybe I didn't know the specific location of the door to the archive room. It wasn't in Mattie's room, I couldn't find anything in the shop, or kitchen, and, no matter what I tried, I could not break the locks on Mr. Wang's door. Unfortunately, that probably meant the doorway to the archives was in there...It only made sense that they would be in the most protected part of the building.

I sunk to the floor in Mattie's bedroom, completely bored with nothing to do. I wonder how much trouble I'll be in when Mr. Wang finds out I broke the locks. After running that scenario through my mind, I shivered with terror. Best to get out of here before he knows...

I stood up, shut all the doors I had opened, and began to walk down the stairs, back to the store part of the building.

On the fifth stair I stepped on in my decent, I noticed something that I hadn't while walking up the stairs; it creaked. A lot. Normally, I'm not a stickler for small imperfections like that, but I hated creaky stairs. There was just something about them that bugged the snot out of me.

I stepped down a few more stairs, so that I could bend down and be at eye-level with the creaky one to see why it was making that horrible noise that always reminded me of the noise a miniature banshee would make if I happened to ever step on one.

Squinting my eyes, I could see that there was a very, very small grove on the edge of the wood that looked almost the size of a carpenter ant. On an even closer examination, I saw there was a slight crack between the surface of the single stair, and the rest of it. I had a theory about what that might be, and with how crazy everything was turning out lately, I knew there was a good solid chance I was right.

I jammed my pinkie finger in the small hole, and, sure enough, the top of the stair lifted a fraction of an inch, encouraging me to slip more of my hand under the wooden plank, lifting it up even further. It didn't take long before I completely removed the wooden top to the stair, allowing me to look at what lied below.

Smiling, I confirmed my suspicions. For there was, indeed, a narrow latter that descended into darkness. No wonder these stairs are so wide.

I was about to start climbing down, when I remembered how I'd spend the previous night; alone in a cold basement with nothing to protect me except a small, dwindling flame.

I couldn't go down without a candle, what if there was some sort of ghost down there that protected the archives?! Yeah, I knew that it was all "physiological" and they couldn't hurt you unless you thought they could, and all that jazz, but I didn't want to take any chances.

From being at the library to bug Mattie before, I knew exactly where Mr. Wang stored his candles. I sprinted down the rest of the stairs, clambered to the front desk, and opened the small drawer that sat just under Mr. Wang's ever present calligraphy set. Quickly as possible, I grabbed one of the crimson candles, lit it with the nearby matches, and set off back to the ladder hidden under the stair.

It was harder to climb down a latter with one hand then I had expected, but not impossible. After nearly ten minutes of climbing, I began to grow nervous.

I really had no idea where Mr. Wang and Matthew were; what if they came back only to discover that the book store had been broken into, with their most secretive archive breached? An archive that only a select few were supposed to know about. Kirkland had been very vague as to when he'd come to retrieve me. What if he came to get me, only to uncover my horrendous deed?

In all of my worrying, I hadn't realized I'd reached the bottom of the latter, and had been walking to only god-knows-where for a solid few minutes. The hallway was narrow; extremely so. It passageway only continued to get thinner, and thinner, so thin that I could no longer walk shoulder-to-shoulder, having to instead resort to slinking my way through the passageway with my chest pressed up against one wall, and by back against the other.

Just before I was about to turn back because I wasn't sure how much longer I could take of the constricting hallway, it opened up into a small room, barely big enough for two people, with a big, iron door standing in front of my nose.

I gasped in a few deep breaths, relived to be freed from the passageway. Looking at the door, I knew that I wouldn't be able to break it down, no matter how hard I tried. There was only one thing left to do.

Banging obnoxiously against the door with my foot and fist, I shouted, "HELLO! Is anyone in there? Please open up! My name is Alfred F. Jones, and I'm the spook's apprentice!"

"Identity confirmed."

I screamed a very manly scream, (okay, maybe my voice cracked a bit...or a lot...), jumped at least a foot in the air, almost dropping the red candle in the process. A voice had came from inside that door, and it...it didn't sound right.

"Voice association complete. Welcome, AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I flinched as I heard the voice replicate my scream in my own voice. It was freaky, to say the least.

The metal door swung open so fast, it almost hit me in the face. Jumping back, I fell on my butt. Ugh, that's going to hurt in the morning...

Getting up like an old man while rubbing my bum, I took my first, cautious steps into the cold chamber that awaited me.

Shinning the candlelight around, I found that I was surrounded by stacks and stacks of files piled on shelves, each one listing a name. Some were quite thick, while others where very thin. Randomly taking one of the thinner files off the shelf, I opened the small booklet and shown the dimming light over the information.

"Amorest, Irine," I read. There was other information about her date of birth, physical description, biological parents, etc. I put the folder exactly where I found it, before I grabbed a thicker one close by. Amreggan, Jerome, was the name I read. He was quite a bit older and had a criminal record, which explained the thicker folder. "So it's all arranged in alphabetical order...that'll make this easier."

For the next ten minutes, I flipped through the archives until I finally found the section I was looking for; the K's.

"Karma, Faith. Psh, what a horrible name...Keller, Dylan, nope...Kemoski, Tabitha, nope...Kempelle Juliana, nope...this is going to take a while." After a few more name readings, I finally found it. Kirkland, Arthur's file was resting in my very hands. "Let's see what you're hiding, Kirkland comma Arthur!"

Opening the file, my eyes were greeted with the standard information that was in the beginning of every file:

Name: Kirkland, Arthur

Origin of Birth: Framlingham, England

Biological Parentage: Allistor and Diana Kirkland [1]

It said a few more boring things that I wasn't interested in. I skipped the page that listed all his blood relatives and the information on his immigration (that's all the boring stuff) but stopped when it listed his job occupation history.

He started as a spook's apprentice at just twelve years old, and took up the position when he was only sixteen. Being a spook was the only thing he had ever done.

Guiltily, I flipped through the pages, but when I saw something about his parent's deaths', I stopped. Mattie was right. If I wanted to know more about Kirkland, I should ask, not pry through his personal records like a creepy stalker.

Putting Kirkland's file back on the shelf, I turned to go back. Looks like this was all for nothing, I thought glumly.

Stepping out of the archive room and back in the little room with the big, metal door, I said, "I guess this is goodbye, big metal door with a creepy voice."

"Goodbye, AHHHHHHHHHHH! Have a nice day." And with that, the big door slammed shut, locking me out of the archives' room.

Squeezing back in the narrow hallway, I thought how odd it was that I was so easily able to get inside the archive room...I'd thought with how paranoid Mr. Wang always was, and how secretive the archive room is, that there would be better security. I shrugged it off, and figured I should just be grateful that I was able to get into the archive room at all.

As I reached the latter, I took one last look back at the passageway that descended into darkness, but found I was no longer afraid of what was ahead because I knew there was nothing to be afraid of. Laughing at how scared I was at first, I climbed back up the latter, removed the wooden plank of the stair I came out of, hoisted myself out, and back into the little bookshop.

Smiling that I hadn't been caught, I blew out my candle, slipped it in my pocket and was about to head out when I heard my brother's voice coming from up the stairs say, "Really, Mr. Wang was right behind me! He could be here any moment..."

Who is he talking to? I walked up the stairs as silently as I could, praying that Mattie and whoever he was talking to didn't hear me.

"Oh Matthew, don't be that way! Take some risks every once in a while! If you didn't, I'm afraid you wouldn't be awesome enough for the unbelievably awesome me."

The voice was definitely male and accented. I released a breath I didn't know I was holding when I realized it wasn't a girl he had in there. Not that I didn't want my brother to be happy and everything, but because I would've been mad if he had gotten a girlfriend and hadn't told me about it.

I walked further up the stairs, following the voices to Mattie's room. I didn't bother knocking (I never did) but severely wished I had when I saw the position Mattie was in with another boy.

The two boys were wrapped in each others arms, passionately kissing. I stood there, dumbstruck at what I was witnessing.

As soon as they heard the door open, Matthew pulled away from the seemingly albino boy, said "Mr. Wang, I can expl—" but the words died on his lips when he saw who it really was, standing before him.

"Wow, it's a green-eyed version of Matthew!" said the albino. "Now that's awesome!"

"That's not a green-eyed version of myself, that's my brother, Alfred. Wha-what are you doing here, Alfred?"

Still in a state of shock, I shakily raised my hand and pointed at my brother, "Y-you..", I moved my hand to the other boy, "a-and you..." I trailed off, dropped my hand, and continued to stare.

Matthew got up off the bed and moved over to me. Grabbing my shoulders he said, "I-it wasn't what it looked like, Al! I can explain, we were just, uh—"

"No, my Mattie-bird here is wrong. We were doing exactly what it looked like."

"Gilbert, you better shu—"

"Passionately making out. And it was almost as awesome as myself."

That seemed to snap me out of my zombie-like trance. I clutched my eyes and screamed, "OH MY SWEET MARY MOTHER IN HEAVEN! MY EYES! MY EEEEEEEEEYES!"

"Alfred!" Matthew pleaded, "Please, try to calm down and I'll explain—"

"Don't touch me, you liar!" I shouted, and slapped his hands away from me. "How could you—what did you—how—oh, never mind you, I'll just leave you, and you-y-y-y-y-y-you can go back to, w-whatever!"

Mattie didn't even let me move a muscle, before he grabbed me again. "Alfred...please, at least listen to me! Let me explain, please!"

I shook my head, certain Kirkland would be there to collect me soon. "Sorry Matthew, I—I have to go. Like you said, Mr. Wang will be here soon anyway."

"Mattie-bird, you should listen to your brother. I wouldn't mind some more alone time together before Wang shows up."

I scowled at the albino, or Gilbert, as Mattie called him. "Hey!" I shouted, then pointed at the silver-haired boy that talked strangely. "You're the one that was smacking on my brother!"

I was angry to say the least. In a fraction of a section, a million scenarios ran rapid though my head, all of them being of how the red-eyed demon seduced my poor, innocent sister, ahem, I mean, brother. I proceeded to shout my battle cry, "You stupid UN-awesome turd!" Then charged at him.

He responded with, "NO ONE CALLS THE AWESOME ME UN-AWESOME!" Then did a poor attempt at attacking me.

He made a lazy attempt at punching me, but it was so halfhearted (even if I did call him "UN-awesome", he still would never want to actually hurt a blood relative of his beloved "Mattie-bird") that I simply grabbed his fist, twisted it so that it was behind his back, and slammed him against the wall. "Matthew, run while you still have the chance!"

"Both of you, SHUT UP CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

The albino stopped struggling to stare at Matthew, while my grip slackened to do the same. We both continued staring with slack jaws, making Mattie squirm under our gaze.

"Please, eh?"

Rolling my eyes, I dropped my arms, and plopped myself on the rumpled blankets of the cot. "Fine, I'll let you talk, but you better make it quick. Kirkland will probably be here soon to pick me up, and that man is more temperamental than a horny chihuahua in heat."

Matthew just rolled his eyes at my comment already being used to my bizarre comparisons, but as for Gilbert, he just stared at me with a violated expression on his face.

Sitting next to me, Matthew bit his lip nervously, before saying so quietly I almost couldn't hear, "I guess the first think I should tell you is that, well, I don't...I don't find myself liking girls, you know, that way."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What way?"

Matthew's face turned red as he stuttered, "Uh, um, you know, to, er, to kiss and do other things...What I'm saying is that I...I wouldn't like kissing a girl."

"So, you're saying that you do like doing things like kissing with a boy," I said slowly.

Matthew wouldn't meet my eyes. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Are...are you mad?"

I looked at him like he was an idiot. "Mad? No, of course not. I'm just...Matthew, I'm just sad that you didn't feel like you could tell me this about you until I found out like this. I thought...I thought you trusted me."

"I do, of course I do!" he protested. "It's just," his voice changed to a darker, lower tone, "you know, people aren't so accepting of boys liking other boys, or girls liking other girls. You know what happens to people like me if Gilbert of I was found out. I didn't know how you felt about it, and I didn't know if you'd shun me, or hate me or—"

"Shut up," I said. "I can't believe you'd think I'd do that, you stupid fart bag. You know me better than that. Yeah, I do admit, it's...unexpected...but, in all honestly, I'm...I'm not all that surprised. There was always something different about you. And you never really did have any crushes on girls, now that I think about it. Huh."

Matthew's face broke into a huge grin, and he did something he rarely ever does; he threw his arms around me in a big bear hug. "Thank you Al, you don't know how much that means to me."

"No problem, bro," I wrapped my arms around the blonde in return, before we both let go and laughed.

"I hate to break such a good brother moment," said Gilbert, "but what where you doing here? Are those twigs in your hair? And why are you sort of damp...?"

I looked down at my mud splattered cloths that were still kind of wet, my torn shoes, and reached up to my hair only to feel a few small twigs in it. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. Meh, it'll take too long to explain."

Matthew cast me a suspicious glance. "Alfred, you do look kind of awful...What in maple happened to you? Wait a minute, was it you that broke the lock on the front door?"

My eyes widened. "I had forgotten about that as well. Uh, if Mr. Wang asks, I was never here. Don't even mention me."

"Alfred, what—"

"I'll tell you everything later Mattie. The old man is probably done with collecting now, so I better get outside. Bye!"

I walked out the door, and shut it behind me. As I was walking away, I faintly heard Gilbert say, "I'm glad he's accepting of us. But...he's a little off, isn't he?"

I felt a stab of betrayal when Mattie replied, "Yeah, he's always been different, not like us different, something a little deeper..."

When I stepped outside I sunk to the ground and laughed bitterly. It figures; in a room with gay people, I was still the abnormal one. Like I said before; no matter how close Matthew and I were, there was always one thing that forced us apart; I had green eyes. [2]

A few minutes later, Arthur came to collect me. As I looked up at the blond man who was rattling away away about our payment system and how it worked, I couldn't help but have a new-found admiration for the man. He had no friends, no family, only himself and his job. He sacrificed so much happiness (though I knew he's never admit it) just to keep the misunderstanding people safe from things they could never know about. No one wanted to be alone. Not even an old, cranky man like Kirkland. I guess that was what made him a hero.

"Alfred, are you even listening?" I ran into the man's back because of his abrupt stop.

Rubbing my nose I mumbled, "Course I am."

Kirkland furrowed his large brows and said, "Is something wrong? You aren't being obnoxious as usual."

Yawning, I replied, "I'm just tired." It was true; I didn't know how much longer I could stand.

"Good thing you're pleasant when you're tired. You'll be having many more sleepless nights."

After a long trek back to Kirkland's mini mansion, I was so exhausted that my legs were shaking, and I was having a hard time focusing my eyes.

"How tedious," Kirkland scowled, as he took off his big black cloak and hung it up on a coat rack near the door. "I was going to question you about your fight with Natalia, but you seem so tired, that it wouldn't do any good. Alright then, take your shoes off, and follow me to your room. I won't carry you if you pass out in the way up the stairs."

I sluggishly followed the Brit up to where my room was (I was too tired to pay attention to where I was going). The second a small cot came into my foggy vision, I collapsed on it without a thought.

Before I shut my eyes, I caught a glimpse of the man's eyes, and ruefully thought, the very thing that separates Mattie and me, is the only thing that binds Kirkland and I together. Green eyes...[3]

In the doorway, watching the American immediately drift off into dreamland, stood Arthur Kirkland. He watch the child fall asleep with a sad smile on his face, and mournful eyes. Before shutting the door he whispered, "Sleep well, little brother. You've earned it."

But of course, the only person to hear his words was lost in a dream about a flying unicorn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the cat's out of the bag!
> 
> [1] Scotland and female Wales. I want to keep family members cannon, if I can.
> 
> [2] THIS HAS A DEEPER MEANING THAN JUST HAVING A DIFFERENT EYES COLOR, JUST SO YOU PICK UP ON THAT. IT IS FORESHADOWING.
> 
> [3] Alfred is referring to their sight, more than actual eye color.
> 
> BTW, the talking door is a spell.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or TSA.

Throughout the next few weeks, Kirkland and I grew to somewhat tolerate each other. I would complain, and he'd reprimand me. That basically summed up my entire existence at that point. Arthur began training me in combat, which was pretty cool, I have to admit, but grueling. Between all the missions, training, and studying up on the creatures of the other realm, I was down-right tired every time Kirkland finally let me go to sleep.

I hadn't seen Mattie in four weeks, and I was still confused as to what I really felt about his newly-discovered sexuality. I mean, I'll love Matthew no matter what, don't get me wrong, but I had to admit to myself it just wasn't normal.

You're not exactly normal either, a voice in the back of my head would respond. You're probably more abnormal than you're brother; green eyes are technically a mutation. Matthew and Gilbert are more normal than you'll ever be.

It was true; I knew this as a fact. There were more people out there who preferred to keep the company of men than there were spooks and people with the sight. Kirkland told me the sight was extremely rare, and only people with green eyes had it, with a few gold-eyed exceptions.

So what, a boy can like a boy, I told myself. Everyone's human, so why does it matter if the person who becomes your special friend is a girl or a boy?

I convinced myself of this, repeating it over and over in my head like a mantra. No one should be condemned just because they like someone with the same gender, right?

I'll admit, while I didn't have any real thoughts or opinions about homosexuals, it was a little difficult to fully and completely solidify that it was not wrong to be a homosexual, for no other reason that I had been told it was wrong my whole life.

Another week passed by, and I still hadn't asked to visit my brother Matthew. By that point, even Kirkland was getting suspicious.

"Why aren't you demanding to see your brother, uh, Matthew? By the way you were demanding to see him only a day after you became my apprentice, I thought that would be a more problematic issue."

Shrugging, I replied, "We kind of had a fight the last time I saw him, and now it would just feel awkward to see him again after that."

Kirkland rolled his eyes and replied, "Teenagers. You are all so dramatic about the simplest issues."

On a brighter note, I was learning how to manage my strength. At least, that's what Kirkland told me. I guess he was right; I was no longer accidentally knocking down trees. (It wasn't my fault! Trees' have weak roots).

After the whole nymph incident, Kirkland sat me down to talk and told me that what I had done was close to impossible for a human to do. Nymphs have incredibly thick skulls; to be able to knock one out cold with a single kick to the head, while they were stronger and I much weaker because we were underwater combined with the fact that I was running out of oxygen, was unbelievable.

Apparently, the kind of strength I had just wasn't human. Kirkland reasoned it was most likely a mutation I suffered while in the womb that went along with the sight; sometimes, someone who had the sight would also have another heightened ability. For example, maybe fast reflexes, fish gills (Kirkland told me we all had them at one point, so these people just retained them), the ability to preform some of the magic creatures from the other realm can do (like Kirkland himself; this wasn't all that uncommon), super strength (like me), etc. There was a big, long list of all the human mutations that had occurred to people with the sight, but I was only the second one in recorded history to have superior strength. The first was a guy named Ivan Braginski.

Great, just another thing that make me even more abnormal than I already was.

After that, Kirkland took it upon himself to put me through combat training tailored to my abilities.

If I was being honest, I never noticed I was stronger then anyone else. Sure, I was able to lift large pieces of furniture at a young age, easily carry two full-grown pigs at the same time to a different pen, and other simple stuff like that, but I never really noticed that Matthew or Holden couldn't do those things.

The first week, Kirkland tried to test just how strong I was.

"Now pick up the sac that ways 200 lbs. Okay, you can lift that, how about the 250 sac? By the queen, you still have no problem with that. Let's just skip to the 400 lbs? Is that one heavy? No? Not in the slightest?!"

Yeah...that went on for hours. We found that my limit was just short of 2,000 lb. For the first time, I knew what it was like to feel the strain of muscles, the ache in my body from pushing it beyond its limits. It was extremely tiring to say the least, but it also felt strangely exhilarating. I would definitely try it again sometime.

From the knowledge of knowing how much I could lift, Kirkland devised a training system to help me control my strength, and know exactly how much force I was exerting at all times while also teaching me different types of combat.

Sometime in the midst of all this training, I asked Kirkland that if I was so strong compared to the average human, then why hasn't ever been a obvious problem before?

He responded, "It probably was when you were a toddler when your mutation started developing. Unconsciously, you taught yourself to use very little force to do things like open doors, and lifting bales of hay for the horses your family owns. Because of that, it didn't seem like a problem in your daily life. It's a good thing you aren't temperamental. If you were, think of all the disasters you could've created just because you got upset. This is why it could become such a huge problem; the more you hold back and repress, the more strained it becomes, which results in the likely-hood of you doing something you'd regret. Understand?"

I nodded that I understood, even though I kind of didn't. I always thought that things you didn't use ended up dying and withering away, like Holden's brain, and Mr. Kirkland's youth.

Once a week, Kirkland took me on another mission. This helped distract me from my problems' with Matthew. Sweet baby Jesus, I managed to bring him up again! The one topic I had been trying to avoid by rattling on about my stupid strength and combat training. Fine, I guess I'll tell you guys what happened, since the topic is straying to my brother so much...

I had managed to avoid seeing Matthew for a whole month (five weeks) before Kirkland told me at breakfast on a Wednesday morning, "Alright, you have successfully went through one full month as being an apprentice to a spook. As much as I hate to say this, congratulations."

Taking a sip of water I asked, "What made it so successful for you to tell me about it?"

"You didn't die."

I nearly spit out my water. "What the butter ball? Do most spook's apprentices die in less than a month?!"

Shrugging Kirkland said, "I wouldn't say most. Just a good portion. In fact, I almost died my third week in I still have the scar to prove it."

My eyes widened. This was the first time Kirkland had ever admitted to having any kind of fault. "W-what happened?"

"We were catching a wild imp. It had eaten a child that had gotten lost, but had mainly been feasting off a local farmer's cattle. Being something of the other realm, we were asked to rid of it. While we were out following it's tracks, I got separated from the current spook. The imp took the appearance of a small child. Thinking it had just wondered away from home, I tried to ask it who it was and if it had any idea of where it lived. It was only too late I saw it grin with a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth, that I had realized what I had so stupidly failed to see; it's aura was black. It's mouth clamped onto my wrist, and started draining the blood from my body. The current spook came just in time to capture the imp, and save my life. I was stuck with simple fairy-catching tasks for a whole two months as punishment."

I stared at the man in shock; I had thought he'd been the perfect little apprentice who couldn't do a darn thing wrong. Cracking a smile I said, "You screwed up worse than I did!"

Raising an unusually large eyebrow at me, the Brit smirked. "I wouldn't look so smug if I were you. Remember the incident two weeks ago?"

I frowned at him, and blushed heavily. "Th-that doesn't count...I wasn't almost killed."

The man had the audacity to laugh at me. "I never was foolish enough to fall asleep in the garden where the fairies live."

"I wouldn't have fallen asleep if you hadn't made me go two nights without getting any shut eyes!"

"Calm yourself, you twit. We've strayed from the original topic of conversation. Anyways, I congratulated you because you have completely your first, well, I guess you could call it a level, as my apprentice. In reward, I will give you a break, and allow you to go home for the course of one week. When you return, you will be faced with more difficult and dangerous missions. In advance, all of your training will be increased and intensified. You are out of what I like to call the introductory stage. Now it's time to really get to work."

"YES!" I proclaimed, jumping out of my chair, and raising my fists in the air triumphantly. "I finally get to get out of this creepy place for a whole week!"

The man scowled at me, with a weird expression flashing across his eyes. If he was anyone else beside the grumpy old man he was, I would've thought he looked hurt at my words. "It's only for a week. No more, maybe less."

I looked at the blonde as if he was an idiot. "Why would I go for anything less then a week? I'm not some sort of self-hurt-inflicting freak, unlike you."

Instead of rolling his eyes at me like I thought he would, he pressed his lips together tightly. Other than that his face was totally poker-faced. That's weird, usually he always looks like he wants to hit me over the head with an iron shovel...

He broke me out of my thoughts by clearing his throat, and standing up swiftly. "I would tell you to collect your things, but you'd just take too long like the twat you are while you already have plenty of cloths at your own house to wear. So, I guess you better get going."

"Hey! I'm not a t—" I forgot about my protest to being a woman's organ, when I realized what he had insinuated. "Wait, you aren't going with me?"

Snorting, he replied, "I see no reason to. You know the way to your own house, and I'm not your personal bloody babysitter. Can I trust you not to fall asleep near fairies and end up tied to a poor girl's window naked again?" [1]

Blushing, I retorted, "That wasn't my fault! You shouldn't make me pull all-nighters like that! I can't handle them!"

"Then stop being a sodding ninny, and learn to become a spook's apprentice!" Kirkland took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "At the end of the week, I'll come to collect you unless you come to me before that."

I rolled my eyes at the very notion of willingly coming back to him before a whole week was up. "Okay, can I go now?" I was excited, to say the least. I missed my Ma, her cooking, teasing Holden, MA'S COOKING, my Pa, MA'S COOKING, the fresh morning air that can be only found on the farm, and, most of all, MA'S COOKING. I have learned something that shouldn't be possible; how to survive with British cooking. Yeah, I know my Ma was British too, but she never cooked any traditional British food. I guess she escaped the horror of being a terrible cook.

"Please do. I miss the days before having an apprentice."

I waved goodbye to the old man and a few of the friendly fairies before merrily skipping my way home.

I still didn't like all the walking I had to do in my apprenticeship, but I had grown used to it. I wasn't nearly as bothersome as it used to be, however, I still remembered to complain as much as I did my first day with Kirkland, if for no other reason than to tick him off.

It wasn't until I was almost home that I remembered the dilemma I had been facing for the past month; there was a possibility Matthew might be home.

Shaking my head, I convinced myself that Matthew being home was highly unlikely. When he first became Mr. Wang's apprentice, he came home maybe once every three weeks. And even if he was at home, he wouldn't stay the whole time I was there, and I'd only have to face the awkwardness once. I just had to make sure I was never alone with him, then I would be fine.

When my house came into sight, I couldn't help myself; I started running towards the door. I took in the familiar scent of manure, milk, and Ma's fresh cooking. My mouth watered. Not only had I been suffering bad cooking, but Kirkland wouldn't even let me eat as much as I wanted. He'd give me a baby-sized portion, and expected me to be satisfied with that. It was unbearable.

I enthusiastically sprinted up the three steps to the porch, and vigorously knocked on the door. The person that whipped open the door was, unfortunately, the person I least wanted to see at the moment.

There stood Matthew, wide-eyed, looking at me with a cautious expression on his face. "Um, hi Alfred!" he said, with a strained smile. "I didn't know you'd be coming home so soon. I though that Ma said you had to remain Ol' Man England's apprentice for at least two months, not one."

I shook myself out of my shocked stupor, and tried laughing lightheartedly. It came out as a strained giggle/choking sound. I hastily cleared my throat (something I seemed to have picked up from Kirkland) trying to somewhat rid the atmosphere of the awkward tension. "Kirkland gave me this week of to visit Ma and...the rest of you."

"O-oh," relied Matthew, with a mildly surprised expression. "That's quite a coincidence. Mr. Wang gave me this week off too."

That sent up a red flag in my brain. What?! No, that can't be! Mr. Wang never gave Mattie whole weeks off! It's simply unacceptable! What, when have I started saying that? I've been reading too much of those Adventure Time comics. "Really? That's, er, great!"

I flashed him a smile, and hastily pushed past him, and ran to the kitchen faster than a fan girl runs towards gay ships. I won't let my awkwardness with Matthew ruin my time here, I decided. Besides, we have to make up sometime, don't we?

I inhaled the wafting scent of chocolate chip cookies, and nearly died, right there are then, out of happiness. My Ma was standing at the over, pulling our a pan of fresh baked goods. She smiled warmly at me. I immediately darted to the cookies, but was smacked with a big, wooden spoon when I tried to grab one.

"No yet," she scowled, "you have to wait for them to cool." She took off her oven mitts, but continued to look disproving. "I see Kirkland still didn't teach you any manners. I haven't seen you in a month, and you don't even say 'hello' or give your poor old Ma a hug?"

I blushed bashfully, and enveloped my Ma in a big hug.

The whole day, I was required to do all the chores I had before I left; in a way it was annoying, but it also felt like nothing had changed at all, which was a good feeling.

It turns out that Pa had handed the farm completely over to Holden in the month I had been gone, which was...different, so say the least. I mean, Holden didn't make any big changes or anything, but it was like the whole farm had a different feeling. It was as if the whole land just changed because of the different ownership.

Other than that, there was only one thing that was a drastic change; Holden was getting married. And it wasn't to the family cow, Maribel. I knew he had a girlfriend, but I never considered her something tangible because Holden never introduced us.

They told me they were waiting until they saw me in person break the news, but it still made me feel estranged from them, in a way. It made me realize that I was growing, becoming my own person with my own agenda. In a way it made me very sad to have the knowledge that I was no longer a part of the farm, but it also excited and thrilled me.

There as nothing awkward about our family dinner, despite Holden's fiance being there and the unspoken tension between Mattie and me. Her name was Evelyn Brown. She was nice enough with honey-blonde hair, chocolate eyes, and a sweet face. There wasn't anything too special or spectacular about her, though. I'll admit, that was a little disappointing, but expected.

Ma asked her how she and Holden met, saying that Holden hasn't said anything because he was just so embarrassed about his love life, and whatnot.

Watching them prattle on and on with my commentary here and there on certain things, (mainly me teasing Holden to get a few laughs out of Evelyn) I both envied and pitied Holden. He had his whole life made for him since he was born; grow up, inherit the farm, marry a country bumpkin or Maribel if he never found a lass, reproduce offspring, then peacefully pass away in his sleep, only feeling that his boring life had any meaning because he procreated with a female. It's nice to know exactly how your life's going to be, but it's must get terribly boring.

With my life as Kirkland's apprentice, my future was anything but set in stone. I would live out my life by doing dangerous missions for the good of others as an unappreciated hero, never knowing which day might be my last. Since I had so much more sex appeal then Kirkland ever had, I would get countless admirers. One of them would be Tori...I would, reasonably, chose Tori, for she will be the fairest of them all—

"—Alfred?"

My head bolted upright as I heard the honey-blonde say my name. She was smiling sweetly at me, obviously expecting some sort of answer. "I'm sorry, what?"

Holden snorted at me. "Don't mind him, his only goal in life is to always have a full stomach. Unfortunately for him, that goal will never be reached."

Instead of laughing, Evelyn scowled, and swatted him lightly on the arm. "Now Holden, that's no way to speak to your brother! Apologize to him!"

"But I—"

"Now."

Much to his chagrin, Holden mumbled, "I'm sorry for teasing you about your appetite, Al."

I smiled at Evelyn, deciding I liked her a lot more that I initially had. Not so plain after all, I thought.

"As I was saying," continued Evelyn, with a glare pointed at her fiance, "Alfred, what is your apprenticeship?"

I bit my lip; this was the topic of conversation I had been trying to avoid the whole night. Talking about spooks was a controversial topic, not one you'd want to bring up if trying to maintain a lighthearted and friendly atmosphere. I had no idea how she'd react to the information I was about to relay, but I thought telling the truth would be better than lying. "Um, I'm apprenticed to Arthur Kirkland."

Her eyes brows shot up in surprise as her mouth formed a little "o". She gaped like a fish for a few seconds before she managed to say, "Oh, um, and, how is that? I mean, I know all the rumors, but I've never heard about the spook's business first-hand."

I opened my mouth to reply, but found that I had no words. Consarn it all, I had forgotten the cover Kirkland told me to tell people about our job. In slight desperation, I gave a nervous giggle and said, "Ma'am, I have been apprenticed to Ol' Man England for a month, and even I'm confused about what exactly we do."

Everyone around the table laughed except Matthew. He stared at me with slightly narrowed eyes, making me fidget in my seat. Luckily no one noticed; no one ever really did notice Matthew, despite my constant reassurance to him that he was very much noticeable. Most of the time Matthew didn't mind in the slightest, but sometimes it would frustrate him.

In any terms, Matthew was suspicious of me, but at the same time he was still treading lightly because I knew his big secret. To say the least, it unnerved me.

The rest of dinner passed with pleasantries, never once going back on the topic of my apprenticeship. In any case, I was glad that dinner was over, and was ready to turn in early; for the last month, I was never allowed more than four hours of sleep at a time. I would savor the next seven days where I could sleep to my heats content.

Just as I was preparing for bed, my door swung open with Matthew in the doorway.

"Dude!" I protested, "Not cool! What if I was naked or something?"

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Alfred, I've seen you naked more times than I would have liked. I don't think either of us would have really cared."

I pouted at the older blonde, knowing what he said was true. For once I stayed quite, not wanting to talk to Mattie about what I knew he wanted to talk about. Matthew always said it was important to confront things, whereas I never saw why I would have to.

"We need to talk," he began, confirming my suspicions.

I groaned loudly, flopped onto my back on the bed. "What's there so say?" I complained. "I thought we already talked about how you like kissing boys."

Matthew turned beet red, slammed the door behind him and clamped a hand across my mouth. "Not so loud," he hissed, "what if someone heard you?!"

I gave the other boy a level look, before poking my tongue out of my mouth to force his hand away. It worked. "Like I said, we already talked. Now if you'd excuse me, I'd like to have my first good sleep in a month."

Instead of leaving, Matthew shot me a concerned look. "Have you been having trouble sleeping?"

Leave it to Mattie to be concerned about me, even when he's upset with me. "More like Kirkland never lets me catch up on any z's."

Giving me the first honest smiled he's given me in a while, my brother said, "Good thing you only have to suffer through another month before you never have to see that man's eyebrows again, eh?"

"Actually," I said, slightly nervous about admitting what I was about to say, "I have no intentions of leaving my apprenticeship anymore. It's actually not so bad at all, if you don't include the risk factors, and—"

"What?!" Matthew exclaimed. "Not leaving? Risk factors!? What next, are you actually going to tell me that Ol' Man England's really an unappreciated hero, and plays with fairies in his free time?"

I couldn't help but laugh at how spot on Mattie's sarcasm was. "I know what I'm saying is really different from what you expected, but it's true; despite how anal Kirkland is about absolutely everything, and how much the job takes out of me, I can't really imagine my life going into any other direction. I'm sorry Matthew...I'm going to remain the spook's apprentice, and hopefully take up the mantle one day."

The look Mattie gave me literally broke my heart. He was looking at me as if I was a complete stranger, despite being the closest person to me since I could remember.

After a few moments of silence Matthew said, "You lied."

"Huh?"

"When you told Holden's fiance that you still didn't know what a spook does, you lied. You didn't have to say what you just told me, you already gave it away when you answered Evelyn. You said you didn't know what 'we' did, not you didn't know what 'he' did."

I glared at the older boy. "Well gee, I'm sorry that not everyone can be a literary genius like you! Geez, everyone's on my case..."

"What exactly do you do?"

I wanted to tell him; I honestly did, and I would have, if it wasn't for the fact that Matthew wouldn't believe me. "I'm sorry Mattie, but I can't tell you."

His eyes grew wide, and I caught a glimpse of his chin quivering before he quickly turned away from me. We always told each other everything, no matter what. So, why had that all changed in just a simple month? Why did it have to change?

We sat in an unpleasant silence, me feeling guilty, and Matthew feeling said. "I'm going to know anyway, so there isn't anything you can really do about it," he whispered. I widened my eyes. Matthew had never threatened me before.

He turned back to look me straight in the eyes, his own red with unshed tears. He was always a bit of a cry baby, I thought fondly. "Mr. Wang and Ol' Man England are friends, did you know that?" I shook my head, surprised. "Mr. Wang told me that they have to work together in their line of work at times. He also told me that it's a good thing I'm your brother, because we'll work together too. That's why he gave me this week off, because he knew that we were sort of avoiding each other, and Mr. Wang knew Ol' Man England was giving you this week off."

I started at the ceiling as if I was trying to burn a whole in it. Matthew crossed over to the bed, and laid down next to me. He looked at the side of my face until I couldn't stand it anymore and snapped, "What?!"

"It would be better if you told me now opposed to Mr. Wang telling me later. At least, that's what I'd prefer."

In that moment, I wished with all my heard Mattie also had green eyes. That he could see the things I could see, that we could make fun of the nymphs together, that we could both suffer the humiliation the fairies gave me, but most of all...I wished that I fit in. I wish that I didn't have the sight. I've always wanted to be the hero, but I've also always imagined Mattie right beside me the whole way, along with all the rest of my friends and family. Never had I imagined it being just myself with Kirkland, of all people.

"I'd rather you'd hear it from Mr. Wang," I responded.

Matthew took a shaky breath before changing the subject; he knew that he wouldn't get anything more out of me that night. "I want you to meet Gilbert tomorrow."

I jerked in an upright position, startling Mattie, and causing him to fall out of bed. "WHAT?!" I shrieked. "B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but I already met him! Why do I have to see the douche-face again?!"

"He's not a douche-face!" Mattie defended, blushing scarlet and picking himself off the floor. "Actually, in a weird way, he reminds me of you, believe it or not."

"I am nothing like that demon-albino! I would never steal that guy's brother's innocence!"

Mattie blushed even harder. "He did not steal my innocence! And not all albino's are evil, Al, haven't you read The Heat ?" [2]

I snorted. "I don't have time to read, I'm a hero! I'm too busy saving poor suckers like you from being molested by crazy nymphs, and making sure the house brownies don't turn into boggarts and poison someone!" Word of advice; don't piss off a brownie and make them turn into a boggart; they're nice little guys, until one day you leave them spoiled milk instead of fresh, and they make your life a living hell. Moving won't help; they'll follow you.

Mattie rolled his eyes once more. "Anyways, it's about two female knights. They're trying to stop solve a case about black magic and what not, I don't really remember. But there was an albino knight in the story that one of them thought was really helping the criminals; turns out he was one of the good guys all along."

"Yeah, whatever. I still don't want to see him."

"Please Al?"

"No."

"PLEASE?"

"No."

"PLEEEEEEEEEASE?"

"I said no, and I'm sticking with my answer. It'll just be weird and awkward."

"Alfred, why not?" Matthew looked genuinely hurt and confused. "I thought you accepted us...well, at least accepted me. But you haven't even came to see me once in five weeks, despite you being the more clingy one out of us. I don't...I don't get it. What made you change your mind?"

"You think I'm weird, don't you?" I blurted.

Violet eyes widened in shock. "What?"

I always knew Matthew thought I was strange, but for the first time, I was voicing it. "You think it, Holden thinks it, Pa thinks it, heck, my whole school house thought it! Even...even Tori. I know Holden's fiance Evelyn thought it too. The only people who don't think it are Ma and Kirkland, because they're 'off' just like I am."

Matthew's eyes went from shock, to dreadful understanding. "Oh, you...you heard."

"Yeah, I heard," I repeated bitterly.

I wanted to cry; he didn't even bother denying it.

"While it's true that I do think you're different," started Matthew, "I don't think it's a bad thing."

"Liar," I bit, watching Matthew flinch.

"I'm not lying," he protested. "Some people think you're stupid, but you're not. You're one of the smartest people I know, even if it's not exactly in the conventional way. And...you're so incredibly strong, it's awe-inspiring. I don't know why, but I know you broke that lock, which you still have to explain to me. Regardless of your motives, that's amazing. When people see that you're different, it's because even ordinary boring people can sense how incredible you are, even if they don't know what they're sensing. Maybe I don't understand you completely...but I don't need to in order to know that I love and care about you as your brother. I mean, you don't fully understand that I like a boy, and like kissing boys, right?" [3]

I nodded in agreement. It was true, I didn't fully understand it.

"It's the same thing. You don't understand it, but instead of being afraid and axing me out of your life, you accepted it because I'm your brother, and you love me, right?"

Again, all I could do was nod dumbly.

"And that's all I need." Mattie sat next to me on the bed. "Besides," he continued, "being normal is so overrated, don't you think?"

"I guess so," I whispered, but I didn't really agree with that. Being normal equaled acceptance, and being accepted meant being happy. That was just how it was.

"So...you'll meet Gilbert tomorrow?"

Reluctantly I agreed, and bid Matthew good night to go to bed.

For the first time in a month, I heard the familiar moaning in the distance, and knocking on my window.

Telling Ma we had someone to meet in town didn't get Mattie or me out of our morning chores. Mattie shrugged it off, and said Gilbert wasn't and early riser anyways, so it didn't matter that much.

We left the house at noon, and proceeded to make our way to town. Most people lived in town, usually having a family owned shop of business, while other family's had farms like we did, and lived more on the outskirts of town. Then there were some weird people who randomly lived out in the woods for no apparent reason, and got kidnapped by nymphs. (cough) Roderick (cough).

On our way there, Mattie explained how he met Gilbert, and how he discovered he was gay. Gilbert had been someone he threw out of Mr. Wang's book store from time to time because he would make too much noise. That had started up a year ago, about the time Matthew first started his apprenticeship with Mr. Wang.

For some weird reason, Gilbert took a liking to Matthew, and decided to bother him until he decided to hang out somewhere. At first this made me sure my suspicions about the albino boy were right—

-Until Matthew told me that he was the one to find out he was gay first and he was the one who came on to Gilbert.

Apparently, at first, all Gilbert had been interested in was making another friend. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith who didn't like Gilbert see other people his age very often, making the boy lonely. Gilbert always had the excuse of being at the library, which wasn't a lie, whenever he saw Matthew.

Matthew first started realizing his feelings a few months after he met Gilbert, but dismissed them to be nothing more than feelings for a friend. But time went on, and Matthew realized they were anything but.

He realized he wasn't being fair to Gilbert if he kept it a secret, and told him. Gilbert initially freaked out, and Matthew didn't see him for two weeks before Gilbert came back and admitted his own feelings. Gilbert admitted he never acted on them because he thought they were wrong; boy's weren't supposed to like other boy's, right? It just wasn't natural.

"In the end we made it sort of work, which is all that really counts," finished Matthew. "Of course, other people will never accept relationships like ours, and it sucks having to be so secretive, but...I'm glad you know."

His voice was nervous and excited in his own, unique, quiet way. It was so contagious that I couldn't help but feel slight excitement as well.

When they reached downtown, Matthew broke out in a run. I followed the best I could, but Matthew was much better at people-dodging, and slightly faster then I was. I called for him to slow down, but he simply laughed and ran faster.

By the time I saw the girl running from another direction, it was too late. I tried to stop, but my efforts were in vain; we collided head-first.

I sent us both sprawling on our butts. I rubbed my cranium painfully, as I stood to help the other girl up.

"Sorry," I said, "you okay?"

The girl ignored the hand I offered her, and stood up on her own. "Hai," she said softly, but not at all timidly. She dusted off her weird dress (she was a foreigner, no doubt) then proceeded to bow to me. "My apologies, I was not looking where I was going."

My face heated up. I shot her an apologetic smile, and tried to wave away her kind words. "No no, it was my fault. Er, sorry."

The girl looked to be around my age, with dark, ebony hair that fell to her shoulders with bangs, very white, porcelain looking skin, weirdly shaped eyes that were almost as black as her hair, and red ruby lips that looked as if they were painted on her white skin. The style of her features kind of reminded me of the kind of look Mr. Wang had, but seemed different enough that there was no relation. I figured she must me from Asia like Mr. Wang.

The strange girl bowed once more before running off in the original direction she was headed. What puzzled me the most was no one seemed to notice her, or even look at her despite her strange appearance.

I shrugged it off, and continued to try to find where exactly Matthew had ran off to. She was kind of pretty, in a weird way...

A few minutes later I found Matthew, or rather, he found me. "Alfred, where'd you go? You just disappeared! Usually that's my thing."

"Er, sorry Mattie," I replied, scratching the back on my head, "I ran into someone. Literally."

Matthew shook his head at me. "You're so clumsy sometimes."

"Not as much as you are!"

"Touche."

The day went surprisingly well. While Gilbert seemed like a complete jackass at first, I noticed be was actually a pretty decent guy. I could imagine Mattie liking him as a friend, but I still had no idea why he would like him romantically. That part baffled me.

Gilbert brought his own sibling along as well; she was a stern, but pretty, looking girl with a sleek blonde pony tail, and piercing blue eyes. When revealed that she knew about her brother's relationship with Matthew, I was a little surprised, to say the least. She seemed like the completely goody-two-shoes that followed and upheld every rule; in other words, the serious looking version of a poster child. Despite all that, she supported her brother's relationship wholeheartedly.

A little later, Louise, Gilbert's sister, left to meet up with her friend, Feliciano. Of course, Gilbert proclaimed that he wouldn't let "his innocent baby sister" venture off downtown by herself without someone with her. She rolled her eyes at him, but let us follow all the same.

Feliciano was waiting with his brother, Lovino. They looked like someone I met before, just vaguely, but I couldn't put my finger on what exactly.

Louise finally talked Gilbert into leaving her alone, when I met Lovino's eyes. They were a weird mixture of gold and green. In that moment, I knew. He had the sight. I could tell he knew that I had the sight too from my strange shade of green on my own eyes, but neither of us said anything, or acknowledged the common skill we had.

Eventually, the time came where Gilbert and Matthew had to say goodbye. Mattie seemed a little disappointed, but was overall happy that I didn't try to kill his boyfriend.

I enjoyed my day out; it had been a while since I saw other humans that weren't part of the family, the mayor, or Kirkland. It was nice, even if it was someone like Gilbert, Louise, and two weirdly familiar Italians.

All the sudden, it hit me. How could I have forgotten?

Feliciano and Lovino were Bianca's children!

I felt adrenaline pump through my veins as I realized that I could save a soul; maybe, if I could talk Kirkland into it, I could manage to get Lovino and Feliciano to see their mother as a ghost. Since her children were always the one's she was griping about, would seeing them allow her to pass on?

I had thought this many times before, but the idea had always seemed as intangible as Timbuktu. Now that I knew the boys were within my reach, it made the idea completely possible.

For the first time in a month, I had trouble falling asleep because of my new-found excitement.

It would have been the perfect day, had I not woken up to screaming in the middle of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1] The incident Kirkland mentioned earlier, in case you didn't catch that.
> 
> [2] I do not own the movie, The Heat. I simply made it a book Mattie read with knights instead of cops, and black magic instead of drugs because I wanted to reference the albino.
> 
> [3] Best brother speech ever, am I right? The "I don't have to understand you to care about you" is actually something a family member said to me a while ago, but it was said in a more humorous fashion opposed to how Matthew tells this to Alfred.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] Yes, I know Alfred's eyes are actually blue and he has glasses. PLEASE don't scream at me, there are a reason his eyes are green that will later be explain. And besides, I didn't say his eyes are going to stay green. (;
> 
> Also, Alfred's dream sequence was all wacky because I figured Alfred's dreams would be wacky.
> 
> PLEASE KUDOS AND WRITE COMMENTS! This is my first Hetalia fanfict, so feedback would be very much appreciated!


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